l897-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 159 



always sound. He was greatly interested in the subject of parasitic and 

 predatory insects, and strongly advocated the fighting of injurious species 

 by the aid of these natural helps. He was triumphant over the success 

 of the introduction of Vedalia cardinalis into California and New Zealand, 

 and was very courteous and hospitable towards Mr. Koebele during his 

 stop at New Zealand on one of the Australian missions. He had a great 

 admiration for American methods in economic entomology, was a close 

 reader of our publications and published periodical summaries of the 

 practical results obtained. 



Peace be to his ashes. L. O. Howard. 



Washington, March 24, 1897. 



Martin Larsson Linell, Aid in the Department of Insects of the 

 United States National Museum, died suddenly May 3, 1897, of heart 

 failure, at his home in Washington, D. C. 



Mr. Linell was born at Gr5nby, Sweden, June 24, 1849, ^"d was conse- 

 quently in his forty-eighth year. He became interested in the study of 

 Nature at a very early age, and in his boyhood began the collection and 

 classification of the fauna and flora of his native country. In the year 

 1870 he matriculated at the University at Lund, where he distinguished 

 himself by his proficiency in mathematics, biology and languages. It 

 was his father's intention to fit his son for the ministry, but young Linell 

 abandoned his university career at the end of his third year for the railway 

 mail service. 



In 1879 he married and came to America, obtaining employment in a 

 chemical laboratory at Brooklyn, N. Y. Here he resumed his entomo- 

 logical studies, improving every spare moment in amassing a collection 

 of the insects of the vicinity, particularly the Coleoptera, in which he was 

 always especially interested. In 1884 he became a member of the Brook- 

 lyn Entomological Society, of which he afterwards held the office of 

 Curator, and at the time of his departure from that city he had earned a 

 reputation for accuracy in the determination of species and was regarded 

 as the best systematist among the entomologists of New York. In 1888 

 he was engaged as Aid in the Department of Insects of the U. S. National 

 Museum, which position he held at his demise. In the course of his nine 

 years' employment at the Museum he had worked over and arranged 

 practically the entire collection, outside of the Hymenoptera and one or 

 two other orders, and had begun a rearrangement of the Coleoptera, both 

 native and exotic, with a view to describing all species that were new. 

 During his residence in the Capital city, Mr. Linell held membership in 

 the Entomological Society of Washington, contributed to the publications 

 of this society and the Entomological Society of New York, and wrote 

 also for " Entomologica Americana," Entomological News, and "In- 

 sect Life." His first work of importance was a list of Coleoptera col- 

 lected in East Africa, published in the " Proceedings" of the Museum for 

 "the year 1896, a paper containing descriptions of thirty-four new forms 



