](IS 



PSYCHE. 



[ Novemher — December 18S3. 



about the syiionvmv of our species, 

 when tliey are publishetl in every coun- 

 try of the <;;lobe, but in tiiat in which 

 they ought to lie jjubhshed r" The 

 thankless task of identitying and cor- 

 rectly interpreting these descriptions, 

 involving so much labor and patient 

 study, was performed almost alone by 

 LeConte, and so well that but few spe- 

 cies of the older authors remain to-day 

 unidentified. LeConte clearlv saw fiom 

 the beginning that American coleopte- 

 rology could not be so much advanced 

 by mere descriptions of new species and 

 genera as by conscientious monographic 

 work. The munber of such monogra- 

 phic and synoptic papers j)ublished by 

 him was great. Of special importance 

 among his earliest papers are those on 

 the pselaphidac ; on the classification 

 of the longicorn cqleoptera, and of the 

 carabidae ; on the elateridae and on the 

 melolonthidae. In 1861 his "Classifica- 

 tion of the coleoptera of North Amer- 

 ica," prepared for the Smithsonian in- 

 stitution, began to appear. This work, 

 though left incomplete until recently, 

 was indispensible to ev'ery student of 

 systematic coleopterology, and neces- 

 sitated the publication of the "New 

 species of North American coleoptera" 

 and the "List of the coleoptera of North 

 America," both issued by the Smithso- 

 nian institution. 



T lis entomological writing was inter- 

 ru])ted dining the civil war, but was 

 resumed again in iS6^. From this time 

 on he had the cooperation of Dr. (ieorge 

 Henrv Horn, who. from tlie beginning 

 of his entomological career, was a faith- 

 ful co-laborer with LeConte. Indeed the 



friendship and cooperation that always 

 existed between these two specialists is 

 one of the most pleasing and instructive 

 incidents in the history of American 

 entomology. LeConte must have felt 

 proud of the excellent work done bv the 

 younger naturalist, and tiie manner in 

 which Horn's more advanced views and 

 often more thorough labors — made pos- 

 sible by accumulated knowledge and 

 material — were accepted, even where 

 they undid much of his previous descrip- 

 tive work, was one of the truest marks 

 of greatness in LeConte. The most 

 important papers of this later period 

 are those on the classification ot the 

 rhynchophorous coleoptera, and more 

 especially "The r/ivnc/iop/iora of .\mer- 

 ica north of Mexico," b\ John L. Le- 

 Conte, assisted by George H. Horn, 

 published in 1S76 as vol. 13 of the Pro- 

 ceedings of tiie Ameiican philosophical 

 society : a work which involved years 

 of patient research and the value of 

 which has not yet been fuli\' recognized 

 abroad. The last important work is the 

 second and completed "Classification of 

 the coleoptera of North America." by 

 LeConte and Horn. 



The list III Dr. LeConte's entomolo- 

 gical writings has been carefully com- 

 piled (up to 187S) b}- Mr. George Dim- 

 mock, in his Special biblography. no. 1, 

 and tiic actual amount of his descriptive 

 work is well illustrated in Mr. Samuel 

 Ilenshaw's "Index to the coleoptera 

 clescriiied by J. L. LeConte, M. D." 

 An additional paper by LeConte. to be 

 ])ul)lisiied in the Transactions of the 

 American entomological societ\ . was 

 about to be published at tlie time of his 



