Book Reviews 417
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Book Reviews 417 McPHERSON, S. 2007. Pitcher Plants of the Americas. McDonald and Woodward; Blacksburg, VA, viii + 320 pp. Hardback, ISBN-13 978-0-939923-75-5, $44.95 [also as paperback, ISBN-13 978-0- 939923-74-8, $34.95]. If National Geographic magazine were to pub- North America. These entomological aspects re- lish a book on pitcher plants, it might resemble ceive only passing mention in this book. The ento- this one, which has excellent color photographs mological literature on Sarracenia pitcher plants and line drawings, and a straightforward text. By is quite extensive—perhaps one day someone straightforward, I mean that it is written in Eng- with a deep enough understanding will write a lish prose, not as a technical scientific book with through review. After that, perhaps the same per- text packed with specialist botanical terms and son or another will write a non-technical review of literature references. Nor is it written as a prod- the quality achieved in this book for the plants. Il- uct of some government agency full of bureau- lustrating such a review to reveal the secret lives cratic self-importance (think of the words “im- of midges and mosquitoes and aquatic mites will pact” vs. effect, “utilization” vs. use, “methodol- take exceptional photography. ogy” vs. method, and you will recognize bureau- Catopsis berteroniana (Schultes and Schultes) cratese). How refreshing. Mez, Brocchinia hechtioides Mez, and B. reducta It gives an account of the pitcher plants of the Baker are bromeliads, and they impound water in genera Darlingtonia, Heliamphora and Sarrace- a central cup formed by a rosette of leaves. They, nia (Sarraceniaceae) and also two species of Broc- too, trap terrestrial insects and harbor aquatic in- chinia and one of Catopsis (Bromeliaceae), all of sects. But none of them has been shown to pro- them native to the Americas. Their distributions duce digestive enzymes (despite equivocation in are described and mapped, their habitats are de- this book); instead the insects drown, are decom- scribed, and their flowering periods are docu- posed by bacteria, and the nutrients they contain mented. Each species, subspecies and variety are absorbed by the plants. A website (http://Bro- mentioned is assigned its current scientific name meliadBiota.ifas.ufl.edu/carnbr.htm) has a par- (noting with a full citation where the original de- tial account of their entomological aspects. The scription was published), and hybrids and culti- same website explains the mechanism initially vars are discussed. Many of the 15 Heliamphora suggested for trapping insects (differing from the species, all native to South America, are only re- explanation in this book), involving an ultravio- cently described, and there are eight species of let-reflecting white powder produced by C. berter- Sarracenia and just one of Darlingtonia. There is oniana leaves. Another part of that website (http:/ a chapter on habitat loss and threat of extinction, /BromeliadBiota.ifas.ufl.edu/wvbrom.htm) ex- a chapter on cultivation and horticulture, a glos- plains the history of the Mexican bromeliad wee- sary, and a bibliography. This book enables the vil Metamasius callizona (Chevrolat) in Florida, identification of these pitcher plants without us- and how it has ravaged populations of native bro- ing botanical keys, and it does much more. meliads. The weevil has not yet been seen to at- Each pitcher of a pitcher plant is a modified tack C. berteroniana in nature probably only be- leaf able to trap terrestrial insects and other or- cause the weevil has not yet encountered the re- ganisms and produce enzymes which digest the stricted populations of the plant. trapped organisms. Well, maybe, because the en- The book is a bargain for its illustrations and zymes have not yet been detected in Darlingtonia the wealth of information it contains, a ‘must and Heliamphora, nor in all Sarracenia. They have’ for any entomologist who needs to identify have four aspects of entomological interest. First, them or work with the insects associated with some moth larvae eat them; second a long list of them. organisms has been found to be trapped in them; third, they are pollinated by insects; and fourth, J. H. Frank some insect larvae and other organisms manage Entomology & Nematology Dept. to live in the digestive fluid in the pitchers of a University of Florida few of them, especially Sarracenia purpurea L. in Gainesville, FL 32611-0630.