Abstract
THIS volume forms the third of a series of studies in comparative anatomy, the object of the authors being to lead the student, by the investigation of some one animal form, to an interest in, and a comprehension of, other kindred forms. While it will be generally conceded that this is a sound method of research, it is evident that its success will very much depend on the special forms selected, and we think that it may be open to some doubt whether, in selecting the cockroach for an introduction to the study of the Insecta, the authors have not selected a too little specialised form, since they have been obliged to omit the investigation of so characteristic a feature of insect life as that of metamorphosis. Nevertheless, they have given us a very fully detailed and interesting account of an easily obtained insect, and we hope it may be the means of encouraging many others to follow up the subject for themselves. As an introduction to this volume, we have a short account of the writings of those wonderfully patient pioneers in the field of minute anatomy—Malpighi, Swammerdam, Lyonnet, and Straus-Durckheim. This is followed by a sketch of the zoological position and the life-history of the cockroach. In this latter there is a brief record of the internal parasites of this insect—a record that might be greatly extended. The chapters on the outer skeleton, the myology, the neural system, the alimentary canal, and the organs of circulation and respiration, are well written and illustrated. The section relating to the respiratory movements of insects is written by Prof. Felix Plateau; that on the embryonic development, by Joseph Nusbaum, who very pertinently remarks that the inexperienced embryologist will find it more profitable to examine the eggs of bees, of Aphides, or of such Diptera as lay their eggs in water. Indeed, the difficulties in the way of the investigation of the eggs of the cockroach are so great that even the author has had to pass over the early stages of segmentation. A chapter on the cockroach of the past, from the able and experienced pen of Prof. S. H. Scudder, concludes a volume which, though not exhaustive of its subject, nor yet quite even in its treatment of all the branches of that subject, may be placed with the greatest safety and advantage in the student's hands. The authors tell us, in their preface, that, from the description of the cockroach in Huxley's “Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals,” came the impulse which has encouraged them to write the present work. We hope that it will in its turn encourage many another to undertake equally honest researches.
The Structure and Life-History of the Cockroach (Peri-planeta orientalis).
An Introduction to the Study of Insects. By L. C. Miall., Professor of Biology in the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and Alfred Denny, Lecturer on Biology in the Firth College, Sheffield. (London: Lovell Reeve and Co., 1886.)
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The Structure and Life-History of the Cockroach (Peri-planeta orientalis) . Nature 35, 365 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/035365a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035365a0