28 
Psyche 
[March 
primitive of living termites, Mastotermes darwiniensis , the 
figure of Cryptotermes brevis , with its phragmotic head, so 
like that of the ants of the subgenus Colobopsis, and the fig- 
ures illustrating the great damage by termites to wood- 
work, books, clothing, shoes, firearms, etc. The systema- 
tist will be interested to learn that: “It may eventually be 
proven that new species of Reticulitermes are being evolved, 
i.e., there are now ‘nascent’ species, or species in the mak- 
ing. Certain species are very close morphologically, and 
races or sub-species exist with composite characters; close 
species may be merely variations ! Or, since termites are 
plastic, or easily moulded, it may be that there is a tendency 
toward a mean, and in reality there are no sub-species.” 
As would be expected from so competent an entomologist, 
there are few errors in the book and these are unimportant. 
The term “zorapterids” (p. 19) is not correctly rendered by 
“wingless forms of life”, if the author really supposed the 
first syllable to be derived from zoe, nor are the jaws of 
Capritermes “goat-like” ; the species of Megachile and 
Euglossa (p. 98) are not “large wasps,” but bees, and the 
authority for Amitermes wheeleri (p. 175) is not “Dean,” 
but Desneux. The arrangement of the text might have been 
considerably improved in places and the style, though usu- 
ally clear, seems lacking in vitality, especially in the last 
chapter, which deals with matters in which it is difficult to 
sustain a general reader’s interest. 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. W. M. Wheeler. 
January 29, 1936. 
