Abstract
MR. BALFOUR-BROWNE has placed students under an obligation by publishing this useful series of tables, founded on notes drawn up for those who have the advantage of attending his courses of entomology at Cambridge. The twenty orders of insects recognised are first distinguished by means of a “key,” and then the families of those six orders that may be regarded as of greatest economic importance—the Orthoptera, Rhynchota, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera—are further discriminated. The characters given are those of adults only; but in later editions the author proposes to deal with some of the larval forms. It is to be hoped that these tables will serve to familiarise the rising generation of entomologists with the Comstock system of nomenclature for wing nervuration, and to hasten its use—perhaps with the modifications rendered necessary by Dr. Tillyard's recent researches—among special students of all orders of insects. Some points of detail in the tables need correction. It is implied that all Thysanura have the jaws retracted within the head; this is not the case with the two most conspicuous families, Machilidæ and Lepismidæ. Palps are not present in the Anoplura and Rhynchota; probably “absent” was meant, but “present” has been printed. In a new edition it would be well, if possible, to break up the unnatural group “Polymorpha” among the beetles, and it is to be hoped that the sale of the book may enable the publishers to reduce the price, which must be considered high, although blank interleaved pages have been considerately provided for students' notes.
Keys to the Orders of Insects.
Frank
Balfour-Browne
By. Pp. vii + 58. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1920.) Price 7s. 6d. net.
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C., G. Keys to the Orders of Insects . Nature 106, 78 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106078b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106078b0