388 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., 'lO 



Cyrus Thomas occupies a prominent place. Although the last 

 twenty-five years of his life were spent in archaeological and 

 ethnological work, his early work made his name very familiar 

 to the present day entomologist, particularly students of the 

 Orthoptera. Born at Kingsport, Tennessee, July 27, 1825, he 

 died at Washington, D. C, June 27, 1910, at the age of eighty- 

 five. 



Dr. Thomas practiced law until 1865, was county clerk of 

 Jackson County, Illinois, 1850-53, and a minister of the Evan- 

 gelical Lutheran Church, 1865-1869. In 1869 he was appointed 

 assistant on the United States Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories (Hayden Survey), serving until 

 1873 an d reporting on a number of Orthoptera collections made 

 by the field parties of the survey. From 1873 to 1875 he was 

 Professor of Natural Science in the Southern Illinois Normal 

 University, while from 1874-1875 he served as state entomol- 

 ogist of Illinois. As a member of the famous U. S. Entomo- 

 logical Commission he served from 1877-1879, in 1882 becom- 

 ing Archaeologist of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, which 

 post he held at the time of his death. 



His papers on Orthoptera number twenty-eight, in addition 

 to his work in connection with the Entomological Commission. 

 The first Orthoptera paper was published in 1862, the last be- 

 ing in the Commission reports. The latter reports, drawn up 

 by Riley, Packard and Thomas, are probably his best known 

 work, collaborating as he was with the other commissioners on 

 several very important economic problems, but the more strictly 

 taxonomic paper of greatest value from his pen was the "Syn- 

 opsis of the Acrididse of North America," published in 1^73 as 

 a report of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. His 

 other papers making known the new material secured by tin 

 Survey field parties are of the greatest value to the working 

 Orthopterist. 



As an archaeologist Dr. Thomas was well known for his 

 works in Maya inscriptions and codices, on the Cherokee and 

 Shnwnce Indians and numerous other studies. f J. A. G. R.] 



