liv PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



holm. He retired from business in 1811 ; and having bought the 

 beautiful estate of Sparresater in Westrogothia, he removed there 

 with his family in 1812, His Majesty, the King of Sweden, made 

 him Counsellor of Commerce in 181 !i!, Knight of the Royal Order 

 of Polar Star in 1829, and Knight Commander of the Royal Order 

 of Wasa in 1846. 



" Without any previous instruction, Schonherr began as early as 

 1784 to collect insects, and became soon intimately acquainted 

 with distinguished Entomologists, particularly Major Gyllenhaal 

 and Professor Quensel, of whom the latter encouraged him to 

 publish his " Synonymia Insectorum" in 1806. What most par- 

 ticularly induced him to vmdertake this work was the uncertainty 

 and confusion which prevailed in the science of Entomology on 

 account of the different systems and names which had been 

 adopted, and it was his study to point out and arrange the 

 different names and places which in the various Entomological 

 systems had by different authors been given to precisely the same 

 species. This plan was soon enlarged by the pubhcation of more 

 accurate systematic definitions and descriptions of new species. 

 He also made a new and original system for the Curculion'ides, 

 which now is generally adopted. Linnaeus knew only a little 

 more than 100 species of this family, and by the authors who 

 preceded Schonherr, as Fabricius, Olivier, &c., only 700, or at 

 most 800 species, were described and confusedly put together. 

 This circumstance, in addition to the vast number of new dis- 

 coveries in this branch of Entomology, made it necessary to sys- 

 tematize de novo, which arduous undertaking was performed by 

 Schonherr in his work which has been published by the title 

 " Genera et Species Curculionidum," where more than 7000 dif- 

 ferent species have been described, and divided in various groups 

 among 644 new genera. Schonherr spent about thirty years' 

 incessant labour on this work, during which time he has kept up 

 a most extensive correspondence with the principal Entomologists, 

 not only in all parts of Europe, but also in Asia and America, 

 who continually communicated to him their discoveries and obser- 

 vations, and many distinguished Entomologists assisted him in 

 special parts of the work, without which assistance it could never 

 have been brought to that state of perfection which it now pos- 

 sesses. By a testamentary disposition Schonherr has presented 

 his rich and beautiful collection of insects, one of the best and 

 most accurately arranged in Europe, to the Royal Society of 

 Stockholm, of which learned body he had been a member since 

 1S09. 



