AND NOMENCLATORS. XX111 



ischen Insekten," edited the " Magazin fiir die Lieb- 

 haber der Entomologie " in 1778-79, and the "Neues 

 Magazin f. d. Liebh. d. Ent." and " Archiv der Insek- 

 teiigeschichte" from 1781 until his death in 1786. The 

 last-mentioned work is in quarto, and illustrated with a 

 great number of excellent coloured plates. 



GEER, Baron Karl DeGeer, a Swede, born in 1720, was 

 destined for a political life, but abandoned it to pursue 

 the study of Natural History, for which, and especially 

 for Entomology, he had a predilection from childhood ; 

 he was also somewhat of a mechanical genius, and is 

 said to have invented some improved forms of machinery 

 for working the mines of Dannemora, and for clearing 

 them when inundated. DeGeer was elected a Member 

 of the Stockholm Academy, and published many papers 

 in the ' ' Transactions ;" but his chief glory is his " Me- 

 moires pour servir a 1'histoire des Insectes" (Stock- 

 holm, 1752-78; 7 vols.), a work rich in facts and obser- 

 vations, and containing descriptions of more than 1500 

 species : the classification depends, in the winged insects, 

 upon the nature and form of the wings, in the Aptera, 

 upon the metamorphoses of the insect. Linne mentions 

 DeGeer 's Museum as "Amphibiis, Insectis aliisque 

 rarioribus dives." The warmest friendship united these 

 two remarkable men; and to both the spring of 1778 

 proved fatal. 



GEOFFROY, Etienne Louis, born at Paris in 1725, was for 

 nearly forty years one of the leading physicians of the 

 French capital. Among many other works, he published 

 in 1762 " Histoire abregee des Insectes qui se trouvent 

 aux environs de Paris, dans laquelle ces Animaux sont 

 ranges suivant un Ordre Me'thodique ;" his classification 

 was made with regard to the structure of the wings, but 

 in the Coleoptera he first introduced the tarsal system. 

 The above-mentioned work was followed by the " Traite 

 sommaire des Coquilles, tant fluviatiles que terrestres, qui 

 se trouvent aux environs de Paris" (1767). At the time 

 of the Revolution, Geoffrey retired to Chartreuve, near 

 Soissons, and lived there till his death in 1810. 



GERMAR, Ernst Friedrich, born in 1786, was sent to school 

 at Meiningen, at which place was resident the Ento- 

 mologist Clairville; in 1807 he removed to Leipsic, and 

 in 1817 was made Professor of Mineralogy and Natural 

 History at Halle, where he died in 1853. Prof. Germar 

 was the author of " Systematis Glossatorum Prodromu*, 

 sistens Bombycum species" (Leipsic, 1810-12), "Insec- 



