Common British Insects

Abstract

AFTER glancing through this book the question uppermost in our mind is: Why does it exist? The highly-ornamented cover, and the repeated title thereon, lead one to expect a popular treatise on all orders of insects, an idea at once dissipated by the title-page. There are other books covering the same ground that would answer the young student's purpose as well as this. Judging it in comparison with the multitudinous other compilations from the same pen, we have no very particular fault to find. It is sketchy, but in some respects it compares favourably, especially in some of the explanations concerning the Coleoptera. Some of the illustrations are good, others wretchedly bad, and unrecognisable without the explanations. When comparing the “nervures” in the wings of a butterfly with the “rays” in the fins of a fish (p. 178), the writer should have explained the minute structure of both.

Common British Insects.

Selected from the Typical Beetles, Moths, and Butterflies of Great Britain. By the Rev. J. G. Wood., M.A., &c. Pp. i.—284. 8vo. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882.)