240 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [May, '13 



ed in a similar capacity on the Northern Pacific Railroad at 

 Spokane. Since 1873 he has resided almost continuously in 

 California, and was for many years county surveyor, or City 

 Engineer, at Santa Rosa. Following the great earthquake 

 and fire o{ 1906, in which he lost heavily, he went to Oakland 

 for a year, whence in October, 1907, he moved to San Diego. 



Mr. Ricksecker was an enthusiastic naturalist and a collec- 

 tor of objects of natural history from boyhood. At first birds' 

 eggs, fossils and shells received his attention, but later, largely 

 through the influence of Prof. O. B. Johnson, of the Univer- 

 sity of Washington (State), he became interested in insects, 

 especially Coleoptera, of which he accumulated a valuable col- 

 lection. These, with all other collections and his library as 

 well, were totally destroyed in the catastrophe which, on the 

 1 8th of y^pril, 1906, fell almost as heavily on Santa Rosa as 

 upon San Francisco. He did not again attempt a private cabi- 

 net, but for several years he collected for sale Lepidoptera 

 and Coleoptera about San Diego, among these a number of 

 species new to science. 



Mr. Ricksecker is best known to entomologists as a Col- 

 lector of West Coast Coleoptera, and there is hardly a cabinet 

 of any size in this country but that has been enriched by his 

 eff"orts. While he has published very little, he has contributed 

 from his experience much valuable information in letters to 

 correspondents, notably, on the occurrence and habits of Pleo- 

 coma, and such fine species as Pleocoma rickscckcri and Cych- 

 rus rickscckcri have been named in his honor. 



A correspondent for many years previously, I have, for the 

 past dozen years, been personally acquainted with Mr. Rick- 

 secker. I found him a good naturalist, well and widely inform- 

 ed ; a courteous gentleman ; a firm friend, generous and just in 

 all his dealings — in short, a man that it was worth while to 

 know. 



Mr. Ricksecker was married in i88r to Miss Henriette E. 

 McFarland, of San Francisco, his second wife, who survives 

 him. H. C. Fall. 



Correction. 

 Page 186 (April News), lines 5 and 6. The paper on Schlechtendalia 

 credited to Rigakuhakushi, C. S., should be credited to Sasaki, C. 



