Insects, Part IL: Hymenoptera continued (Tubulifera and Aculeata), Coleoptera, Strepsiptera,
Lepidoptera, Diptera, Aphanip- tera, Thysanoptera, Hemiptera, Anoplura. By David Sharp, M.A. (Cantab.), M.B. (Edin.), F.R.S. "Cambridge Natural History," Vol. VI. (Macmillan and Co. 17s. net.)—With the present volume Mr. D. Sharp concludes his large general work on insects, and, as will be seen, it deals with five out of the seven great Orders of insects, the first volume having been largely devoted to generalities, and including, in addition, only the Orthoptera, Neuroptera, and a portion of the Hymenoptera. The concluding sections of the Hymenoptera, with which Vol. II. commences, include the comparatively small section of the Tubulifera, or ruby-tail flies, and the profoundly interesting section of Aculeate Hymenoptera, comprising all the ants, bees and wasps, the only creatures (except the Termites, or white ants, as they are improperly called, which belong to the Order Neuroptera), with which we are at present cognisant, whose intelligence and polity may reasonably be compared with our own. Consequently, we find that nearly a third of the present volume is devoted to the Hymenoptera, their habits, friends, and enemies, &c., being specially noticed, as well as the results of the observations and experiments of numerous careful observers. On p. 141 we find a table of the chief forms of polymorphism in ants ; but though it is divided into eight columns, it by no means exhausts this curious section of the subject. This may be compared with the polymorphism of Aphid, discussed in another part of the present volume. The notice of the other Orders of insects includes, perhaps, a larger proportion of technical matter, though the author pays special attention to matters of general instinct, such as the strange life- history of the oil-beetles, blister-beetles, and the curious bee parasites sometimes classed with the Coleoptera, and sometimes placed in a small separate Order, the Strepsiptera. In some instances, however, as in the case of a cockroach parasite, referred to on p. 269 as Symbius blattarum, we should have been glad of fuller information, accompanied by figures. But it is difficult to cram everything of interest relative to an enormous group like insects into two volumes, however large ; and the great Orders Diptera and Hemiptera, which come nearer the end of the volume, are treated less fully than those which have Drecethd them. The
book is well got up, the print, paper, and the numerous illustra- tions in the text being all excellent.
Previous page
