72 [August, 1874. 



gation of the CoccinellidcE and Eroti/UdcB of the entire world ; he speedily amassed 

 very important collections in these groups, and published in 1871 a list of the Coc- 

 cinellidce of the world, and also prepared for publication a revision of the family 

 CoccinellideB, which, though not yet published, will, it is expected, be shortly issued 

 from the Cambridge University press. 



At this time he was acting as sub-editor of the Zoological Record. In the 

 autumn of 1872, he left Europe with the intention of making an entomological 

 journey round the world, and passed to the United States, where he spent the winter 

 of 1872-3 in studying the Coleoptera of North America. So energetically did he 

 carry on these studies that he was able to publish a catalogue called a " Check list of 

 the Coleoptera of America, north of Mexico ; " as well as various extensive memoirs 

 on important groups of the North American Coleopterous fauna, viz. : " Materials for 

 the study of the Fhytopliaga of the United States," " Notes on the species of jBvl- 

 prestideB found in the United States ; " both of which tave been published in the 

 proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia : also " Synopsis of 

 the JErotyUdce of boi'eal America," " Synopsis of the Endomychidce of the United 

 States," "Revision of the CoccinellideB of the United States," and "Revision of 

 the Di/tiscidcB of the United States," all of which were published in the Transactions 

 of the American Entomological Society. During the same winter he also read a 

 paper before the American Philosophical Society, " On the arrangement of the 

 families of Coleoptera." In the production of these papers, he no doubt received 

 much assistance from the great American coleopterists, Messrs. Leconte and Horn ; 

 but, making all due allowance for this, these works exhibit an amount of activity 

 almost without parallel, we should think, in the annals of entomological literature. 

 In the spring of 1873, he went to California, and passed tlie summer in making an 

 entomological exploration of that country, Oregon, and the Eraser River district. 

 In this task he was most successful, for he not only brought back with him a vast 

 amount of material, but it is estimated that this contained no less than three hundred 

 species new to science. Returning to the Atlantic coast in the autumn of last year, 

 he commenced work at the Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he 

 had accepted an appointment offered him by Agassiz. But, after the death of Agassiz, 

 his connection with the Museum soon terminated ; as by this time the pidmonary 

 complaint which had attacked him during his first winter in the United States, de- 

 clared itself in an unmistakeable manner, and made such rapid progress, that he died 

 at Philadelphia on the 16th of June last. 



Crotch was a man of genial and courageous disposition, and to such of us as 

 have lost in him a friend as well as the entomologist, the loss is indeed a grievous 

 one. His powers of work were enormous, and there can be no doubt that he often 

 (we might say habitually) overtaxed himself; he really appeared to have no thought 

 of taking care of himself, and it is no doubt to these tilings, in conjunction with 

 the trying climate of the United States during the winter, that the development of 

 the illness which has deprived us of him is to be attributed. He was, we believe, 

 only 33 years of age, and was cut off at the moment when his faculties might have 

 been expected to have taken a still higher development ; had his judgment matured 

 and become equal to his other powers, he would have ranked amongst the very first 

 of the entomologists of the world. As he was, " take him for all in all, we shall not 

 look upon his like again." 



