1910.] -21 



Prof. Dr. Gustuv Kraatz, Ph.D., one of the foremost Coleopterists of our 

 time, died on November 2nd last, in Berlin, at the age of 78. He had been 

 practically blind for several years and knew that the end was rapidly approach- 

 ing. Born in Berlin in 1831, Kraatz had the good fortune to become personally 

 acquainted while he was still very young with entomologists of such standing 

 as Schaum and Erichson. His inclination for collecting and stiidying minixte 

 Coleoptera soon brought him to the front. At the age of 18 he published his 

 first paper, on the Myrmecophilous beetles he had collected in the neighboiu'hood 

 of Berlin, and other papers soon followed. The work which brought Kraatz 

 lasting fame was tlie second volume of Erichson's " Natxu'geschichte der 

 Insecten Deutschlands." This vohime, entirely written l\y liim, deals with 

 the Staphylinidie and is frequently consulted even at the present day. 

 However, Ki'aatz's interest in Coleoptera was very wide. He has done extensive 

 work in nearly all the families of beetles represented in Europe. Amongst the 

 exotic forms he was most interested in the LawieWiconua, particularly Cetoniinse, 

 of which he has described a large nxun))er of species. As there was hardly any 

 one in Bei-lin who specially dealt in natural history publications at about the 

 middle <:)f the last century, Kraatz, witli keen insight, seized the many oppor- 

 tunities he had of buying rare books, and thus amassed a veiy valuable 

 collection of entomological literature. 



In October, 1856, Kraatz founded, in connection with Stein, Schavun, 

 Kiesenwetter, Redtenbaclier, and many other entomologists, the Berliner 

 Entomologische CTesellschaft, which, in 1881, owing to internal quarrels, split 

 up into two societies, Kraatz and his adherents seceding and forming the 

 Deutsche Ent. Gesellschaft. 



Kraatz was never married, and his apartments gTadually became actual 

 storerooms for books and insects, among which he has worked as long as his 

 eyesight lasted. Even when his sight had become so liad that he could 

 scarcely distinguish species of large size, he covild not tear hunself away from 

 what had been his life-work. A few years ago, liowever, he recognised that he 

 had to give in, and made arrangements to have his collection and library trans- 

 ferred to another building where they coixld be sorted and stored. He became 

 thus tlie founder of the first pui-ely entomological museum, the Deutsches 

 Entomi^logisches National Museum, to which many other entomologists have 

 bequeathed their collections. The very considerable fortune whicli Kraatz 

 possessed on his death has also been left by him to that institution, whose 

 permanency is thereby amply assiu-ed. 



In 1905 the Prussian Grovernment honoured Kraatz by bestowing on him 

 the title Professor, in recognition of his services to Entomology. 



In 1906 the Deutsche Ent. Gresellschaft published a special Kraatz Jubilee 

 number containing a biography of his life, a complete list of his 1393 entomo- 

 logical papers, an excellent portrait, &c. In the list of Fellows of the 

 Entomological Society of London Kraatz's name appears from 1876-1907. 



The body has been cremated at Hamburg, and the urn containing the 



