Thomas Say Foundation
Monographs
Is your set complete?
ESA's Thomas Say series offers the
entomologist authoritative reference
works on arthropods in North America.
Since its inception in 1914, the Thomas
Say Foundation has continued to fulfill
its original goal: the publishing of
catalogues, revisions, and monographs
of North American arthropods. The
nine volumes published represent
significant contributions to the science.
Check the list below to see which of the
available volumes you need to complete
your library's Thomas Say series.
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Vol. 3: PJecoptera Nymphs of
North America. By Peter W.
Claassen. 199 pp., 1931. ESA
members: $6.50; nonmembers:
$10.90.
Vol. 4: The Blow Flies of North
America. By David G. Hall. 477
pp., 1948. ESA members: $9.00;
nonmembers: $15.00.
Vol. 5: Aphids of the Rocky
Mountain Region. By Miriam A.
Palmer. 452 pp., 1952. ESA
members: $13.00; nonmembers:
$21.70.
Vol. 6: A Catalog of the Mosquitoes
of the World. By Kenneth L.
Knight and Alan Stone. 611 pp.,
1977(2nd edition). ESA members:
$12.50; nonmembers: $20.90.
Vol. 6 Supplement: Supplement to
A Catalogofthe Mosquitoes of the
World. By Kenneth L. Knight. 107
pp. (soft cover), 1978. ESA members: $2.00; nonmembers: $3.35.
Vol. 7: Monograph of Cimicidae.
By Robert L. Usinger. 585 pp.,
1966. ESA members: $13.00;
nonmembers: $21.70.
Vol. 8: Anopheline Names: Their
Derivations and Histories. By
JamesB. Kitzmiller. 839 pp., 1982.
ESA members: $16.50; nonmembers: $26.50.
Vol. 9: The Eriophyid Mites of
Alfred Nalepa. By Richard A.
Newkirk. 128 pp., 1984. ESA
members: $12.00; nonmembers:
$20.00.
To order the volumes you need, send
payment with your request to ESA,
Box 4104, Hyattsville, MD 20781.
Maryland residents, please add 5%
sales tax. Books are shipped upon
receipt of payment.
Entomological
Society of America
60
vides several accounts of how urbanization has impacted negatively on insects.
The author offers political action as a solution.
An informative, conceptually
imaginative account of suburban garden ecology
is provided by Owen. She discusses the
extreme structural
diversity of gardens
and how man through his garden management practices maintains gardens in a permanent state of succession. Chapter 17,
by Kielbaso and Kennedy, purports to discuss urban forest entomology,
and does
this in part. The emphasis,
however,
seems to be on urban silviculture.
Brewer and Stevens provide a satisfying
review of the principles of IPM and explain how they can be applied to the
urban setting.
They express
concern
a particular issue. These issues center on
the role of plant variation or heteroge·
neity as a defense mechanism
and the
counteractive
adaptations
taken by in·
sects. I say insects, since except for a few
paragraphs that mention fungi, bacteria,
and viruses, the herbivores discussed arc
insects.
The book's importance lies in the revelation of the complexities
involved and
the offering from several viewpoints ways
to broaden our understanding
of the impact of variability on plant-insect relationships. Ironically, the weakness of the book
is in the very persuasiveness
of the arguments that bolster
the new ideas and
theoretical expansion that are its strength.
The arguments
do not always rest on
sound premises and often entail a lack of
about
recognition
scheduled
pesticide
applications
and espouse that there is no scientific
reason why IPM should not work for ornamental plants.
In the last chapter, Campana discusses
insects as plant pathogens. He reviews in
an interesting way selected relationships
between plant diseases and insects with
an emphasis on trees.
In spite of the varying quality of some
of the chapters, the strength of the others
would make the overall volume a valuable
addition to one's library. I would highly
recommend
that entomologists
buy this
book either as a matter of general interest
or because they are involved in urban entomology.
David N. Byrne
Department of Entomology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
VARIABLEPLANTSAND HERBIVORESIN NATURALAND MANAGEDSYSTEMS.Robert F.
Denno and Mark S. McClure, eds. 1983.
Academic
Press, New York. 717 pp.
$64.00.
The recent increase in frequency
of
publications
on plant-herbivore
relationships refleCtS the exponential
growth of
interest in the subject. Advances made in
the identification
and study of the mechanisms involved (e.g., secondary chemicals) have undoubtedly
fostered much of
this interest. This book, however, does
not focus on defining traits or mechanics,
but instead adopts a holiStic approach to
explain the dynamics of plant· herbivore
relationships
at the individual,
species,
and community levels.
The book is not a review of the literature nor a presentation
of original research, but it does incorporate both to the
extent needed by each author to develop
of fundamental
principles
of
related,
important
disciplines
such as
plant physiology. This makes it difficult
for anyone without considerable
experi.
ence to separate the factual from the in·
tuitively appealing.
Nonetheless,
those
who approach the book with a critical but
receptive mind will be amply rewarded,
for it does ask the right questions and thus
reveals several areas for productive
re·
search.
All but;
of the 18 chapters
can be
traced to a symposium
held at the Na·
tional Conference
of the Entomological
Society of America in Atlanta, Georgia, in
1980. Happily, several devices were used
to overcome some of the problems characteristic
of symposium
proceedings.
Rather than simply compile the presentations, the editors allowed the authors
substantial
time to revise their manu·
scripts, enabling
them to incorpOratl;
some of the interactive
discussion
the
symposium
provoked.
The editors pro·
moted continuity by providing an excel·
lent introduction
as well as synoptic remarks to preface each of the five sections.
The authors avoided reiteration
by recognizing each other's work and deferring
to another chapter where appropriate. Because of space limitations,
only a few
chapters, chosen to illustrate the book's
flavor, will be mentioned in this review.
Discussed first is "Sources of Intraplant
Variation and Consequences
for Herbivores." Herein, Whittam, by exploring the
effect of different sized leaves on Pem·
phigus aphids, illustrates the benefitS and
costs to a parasite of adapting to a mosaic
of resistance levels. Ryan reviews the proteinase inhibitors produced in response to
wounding. Schultz discusses the COStSand
benefits of various behavioral and life history adaptations
taken by caterpillars to
cope with the spatial and temporal variability of forest trees. Rhoades indicates
BULLETIN OF THE ESA
how the food value of plants can be altered by stress, particularly due to insect
attack.
Part .2 examines interplant variation.
Denno shows how a planthopper, through
changes
in morph-type,
tracks the
changing
and variable quality of its
"patchy" food plant. This enables the
planthopper
to exploit the host's vari- .
ability rather than be limited by it.
Mitchell uses a mathematical approach to
also illustrate the value of being selective
when the resource is variable.
Part 3 is titled, "Host Plants and Genetic
Variation in Herbivore Populations." This
section consists of only three chapters,
whereas ten chapters were devoted to
plant variation. This is indicative of how
little is known of the rolc of herbivore
genetics
in insect-plant
associations.
Mitter and Futuyama, in their chapter,
categorize and review the current evidence that environmental heterogeneity
contributes to the maintenance of genetic
variation
in phytophages.
It is their
opinion that the few examples available
do not justify broad generalizations, but
do afford predictions about what to look
for and what to expect. Scriber also avoids
generalizations and instead relics on his
extensive published and unpublished data
on species and geographic differences of
Papilio butterflies
and saturniid
silk
moths to relate feeding specialization,
physiological and ecological traits with
formation of host races.
In the last section, "Host Variability and
Herbivore Pest Management," Gould focuses on the genetics of economically important plants and their pests. The chapter
demonstrates thc vast extent of empirical
knowledge as well as theoretical understanding held by those involved in plant
resistance work. This contribution
was
likely placed ncar the end of the book to
illustrate how the theoretical concepts
developed
in the preceding
chapters
might be integrated
into pest control
strategy. However, I could not help but
think how the preceding chapters would
have benefits by a more careful examination of information generated through
applied
resistance
work. Resistance
breeding, after all, is an old and successful
science. Its practitioners often have both
the resources
and systems to produce
large data bases, but because of goaldirected priorities, often cannot draw out
the basic or theoretical implications.
The minor problems that the book has
An Introduction to the Study
of Insects
Donald J. Borror
Dwight M. DeLong
Charles A. Triplehorn
This authoritative reference, in its fifth edition, is now
available from ESA! An Introduction to the Study of
Insects provides information on all aspects of entomology, from general anatomy and physiology to
identification keys for each of the 28 insect orders currently recognized. This revision contains 33 chapters,
each with a thorough bibliography. It is loaded with
diagrams and photographs, and includes a glossary of
useful terms. This work is the sourcebook for both
novice and seasoned entomologists. By Donald J.
Borror, Dwight M. DeLong, and Charles A. Triplehorn. 827 pp., 1981. Published by Saunders College
Publishers, New York. To receive your copy from
ESA, send your order with payment ($32.25 for ESA
members; $37.75 for nonmembers) to ESA, Box
4104, Hyattsville, MD 20781. Maryland residents, add
5% sales tax to all orders; add $2.00 for shipment
outside the U.S.
are more annoyances than faults. A few
chapters repeat previously published material to a luxurious excess. This could be
excused as necessary for completeness,
but has placed the book beyond many
personal checkbooks.
The attempts to
provide a mathematical patina to theoretical considerations are laudable for at least
recognizing the importance of quantitative models, but also reflect the disinclination of ecologists to understand
the
math that is so essential to this field. There
is an overemphasis on herbivory as the
driving force that explains intraplant variation. Little mention is made that much
within plant variation is a result of differential and selective allocation of nutrients
that is normal to the growth process. Such
criticism,
though,
belies the overall
breadth and balance of this book that
make it indispensible reading to those
with a serious interest in plant-herbivore
dynamics.
Michael E. Montgomery
USDA Forest Service
Center for Biological Control of
Northeastern Forest Insects
and Diseases
Hamden, CT 06514
Coloring Fun with Insects
ESA's book for the young entomologist contains 46 drawings of common insects. Each
drawing is number coded for coloring with eight
basic colors: green, yellow, blue, red, orange,
purple, brown, and black. The coding of the
drawings enables the child to color the insects
as they appear in nature, teaching them the
rudiments of insect identification. A sentence
accompanies each drawing that gives information
about the insect's name, home, or habits. Insects
featured include the rainbow grasshopper, yellow
swallowtail, cicada, velvet ant, ladybird beetle,
and bumble bee. A great introduction to the
wonderful world of insects, for children ages 7
through 10. Copies are available for $3.00 each
(Maryland residents, add 5% sales tax) from ESA,
Box 4104, Hyattsville, MD 20781. Please send
payment with your order.
Entomological
Society of America
WINTER 1984
61