Royal Cabinet of Insects at Berlin. 313 



of the celebrated Knoch at a reasonable price, and thereby greatly 

 increasing the number of our North American species, and of the 

 smaller Beetles more especially, suffered to escape. Finally, in 

 the course of the past year my owri valuable collection of Hi/meti- 

 optera was added to the Royal Cabinet, and by this means an 

 Order hitherto very defective, was rendered at least equal, if not 

 superior, to any of the others. 



" But as the Collection has been within a very short time con- 

 siderably and generally increased by the rich transmissions of our 

 travellers, the additions thus made to it deserve a particular notice. 

 The most extensive acquisitions have hitherto been derived from 

 Brazil. The first of these, which were sent from Bahia by 

 Freireiss, were of little importance, and were soon rendered 

 superfluous by the rich contributions of Sellow, who was enabled, 

 by the active assistance of the Prussian Ambassador at the Court 

 of Brazil, Count Von Flemming, and of the zealous Naturalist 

 Dr. Von Olfers, and partly in the company of the latter, to 

 collect with marked good fortune in the districts of Bahia and 

 Minas Geraes, in the environs of Rio Janeiro and Monte Video, 

 in entirely different localities from those which had been visited 

 by Sieber, the Count Von Iloffmansegg's Chamberlain. The 

 collection was also enriched with many new species from Rio 

 Janeiro by Feldner and Beyrich ; with important contributions 

 from the same neighbourhood by the active Entomologist Bescke 

 of Hamburg; and with a great number of the finest and rarest 

 species, more particularly of Coleoptera and Lepidopiera, pre- 

 sented M'ith singular liberality by M. Von Langsdorff. That on 

 no side has the communication of a single species been withheld 

 appears from the fact that the very numerous uniques of M. 

 Langsdorff's Collection were by the express directions of their 

 proprietor transferred to the Royal Cabinet, and replaced only by 

 an equal number of duplicate specimens from the latter collec- 

 tion. 



** Although in various ways several thousand new Brazilian 

 species have been thus added to our Cabinet, America is not the 

 only source from which it has been enriched. The Museum has 

 received, through the unwearied exertions of the prematurely 



