466 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Some South Indian Insects and other Animals of Importance 

 Considered especially from an Economic Point of View. By 

 T. Bainbrigge Fletchek, K.N., &c. Government Press, 

 Madras. 



In our last issue we called attention to a massive publication 

 on "Indian Forest Insects" by Mr. Stebbing ; we have now 

 received the above equally large and handsome volume on a 

 similar subject. The introductory chapters deal with general 

 entomological topics, those on "Means of Defence in Insects" 

 and " Communication amongst Insects" being based on facts 

 and very suggestive, while the author concludes " that the 

 majority of even the most complex of the actions of insects are 

 regulated by instinct, and that cases of reasoning are very rare 

 and confined solely to the most highly-organized of the social 

 insects." The subject of " Control of Insect Pests of Crops " is 

 very exhaustively treated, and agriculturists in Britain may find 

 many hints by studying the processes as used in India. Beferring 

 to the well-known Dynastid Beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros, Mr. 

 Fletcher reports that it "occasionally bores into sugar-cane 

 stems." It is satisfactory to hear this qualified accusation in 

 S. India ; the beetle used to be more destructive some forty-five 

 years ago in the cane-fields of the Malay Peninsula, where a few 

 Malays were employed to search for and cut out the injured 

 canes with their coleopteral enemies. In the Bhynchota many 

 of the smaller species have lately been found to be widely distri- 

 buted, owing probably to the artificial dispersion of plants. 

 Thus Pundaluoya simplicia, Dist., originally described from 

 Ceylon, and here recorded by Mr. Fletcher as found throughout 

 the plains of Southern India, has now also been received from 

 S. Nigeria and the Hawaiian and Seychelles Islands, and 

 probably, despite mistaken identification, from Fiji, Java, and 

 Australia. 



