Les Insectes parasites de l'homme et des animaux domestiques

Abstract

FRANCE has produced many notable parasitologists, and Brumpt, Neveu-Lemaire, Blanchard, and Ralliet are familiar names of authors of text-books on their subject. M. Seguy is chiefly known as a dipterist, and his studies on mosquitoes have evidently led him to embrace the wider field of parasitology. Although only five orders of insects directly affect man or his domestic animals, a vast literature has grown around them, and the task of treating them at all adequately from the aspect of parasitology is an unusually heavy one. The handbook of M. Seguy is notable as a very concise and practical illustrated epitome of the subject. He has succeeded in compressing within its small compass a really large amount of accurate information. The Diptera, being the largest order the parasito logist has to contend with, naturally comes in for the major share of treatment. In dealing with this group, the author adopts the heterodox classification of Lameere, who divides the order into only Nemocera and Brachycera. The latter sub-order is made to include the Nemocera Anomala of Osten Sacken, the Brachycera and all the Cyclorrhapha of the more usual systems. This feature renders the section devoted to Diptera rather difficult to follow until one's previous ideas have been readjusted accordingly. The Mallophaga, Anopleura, and Aphaniptera are also adequately dealt with, but among the Hemiptera the Reduviidse are perhaps dismissed rather too summarily. The book concludes with a well-chosen bibliography of more than 300 references, which, along with the numer ous footnotes, includes most of the important sources of information. Les Insectes parasites de l'homme et des animaux domestiques. E. Séguy Par. (Encyclopédie pratique du Naturaliste, tome 18.) Pp. 442. (Paris: Paul Lechevalier, 1924.) 30 francs.