Abstract
IN this sumptuous and profusely illustrated volume Mr. Ealand attempts "to provide a text-book of entomology, useful alike to the serious student and to the reader who takes up the subject as a hobby."To us he appears to have fallen between two stools. The opening chapter on classification raised our suspicions when we encountered more than five pages of tabular classification of no possible value to the "serious student,"for no hint is given of the basis employed, while to the reader with entomology as a hobby it is positively soul-destroying to be faced with a prodigious list of mere names. The second chapter, on social habits, colouring of insects, and economic questions, is more readable, provided one already possesses a considerable knowledge of insect orders and suborders. From chap. iii. onwards, however, the accounts of the several orders, etc., are of no value to the specialist, and of but little interest to the amateur. Nowhere do we find, either an account or an illustration of the essential structure of an insect, or even of the mouth appendages; true, the serious student should know the main facts about these; but where will he be if his serious study should by misfortune begin with "Insect Life"?
Insect Life.
By C. A. Ealand. Pp. xii + 340 + lxxiv plates. (London: A. and C. Black, Ltd., 1921.) 30s. net.
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Insect Life . Nature 107, 806 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107806a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107806a0