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A NEW MANUAL OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
There is no text-book on entomology in any language which contains 
so many points of excellence as does the recently published Manual 
for the Study of Insects, by Professor and Mrs. Comstock. English- 
speaking students are fortunate that such a work has been published 
in English, and American students are particularly fortunate that it is 
based upon forms which inhabit this country. It is a large work, 
comprising about 700 pages, and includes a more or less detailed con- 
sideration of insects and their near relatives, such as the spiders, 
mites, and scorpions. In all cases there are synoptical tables to 
families, and many of the commoner forms are figured and described. 
Particular attention is paid to habits and transformations, and species 
of economic importance are singled out for especial mention, remedies 
being given in many cases. The insects proper are divided into nine- 
teen orders, and much original work upon classification is indicated. 
The greatest reform which the book makes is in the nomenclature of 
the wing veins of the insects of different orders. The veins have been 
homologized throughout all orders, and a uniform numerical nomencla- 
ture has been applied. Entomological students will in the future, as a 
direct result, be spared a large share of the trouble and annoyance 
which older workers have had through the extraordinary confusion 
which has hitherto existed in this direction. The work is most pro- 
fusely illustrated, containing about 800 text illustrations in addition 
to 6 full-page plates. Most of the illustrations have been drawn and 
engraved especially for this work by Mrs. Comstock, the main excep- 
tions being a series taken from the author's Government reports and 
certain diagrams of wing-venation which have been done by some of 
Professor Comstock's assistants. 
AN INSTANCE OF INTELLIGENCE IN ANTS. 
The January number of Pevista Brasileira, a monthly magazine just 
started at Eio Janeiro, contains an interesting note upon the intelli- 
gence displayed by the so-called sauba ant (probably (Ecodoma cepltal- 
otes ). It seems to be the general opinion that these ants spare the coffee 
trees that grow about the ant-hills. They enjoy the shade afforded by 
these evergreen trees, whose roots penetrate their galleries, and hence 
endeavor to preserve them, despoiling only those which furnish them 
no protection. The writer of the note referred to witnessed near Pio 
an interesting exhibition of the intelligence of these insects. A " Posi- 
nante" lodged in a stable built of boards was being daily defrauded of 
a portion of his rations by the saubas. We quote from a translation 
from the Portuguese kindly sent us by Mr. J. 0. Branner: 
No sooner was the corn put in the feed trough than the scouting ants announced 
the fact, and a line of workers was immediately established; and. penetrating by the 
cracks between the hoards, they came out. each one loaded w ith a grain of corn, with 
which it descended on the outside. In this descent there was a reentrant angle, 
