52 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Voi. viii 



garded as the greatest cuculionidist of his time. Maj. Leonard 



Gyllenhal was his friend and, at times, co-worker. The 

 Gyll. latter has 80 species and three genera to his credit. Ger- 



mar was a professor of mineralogy, but he loved beetles 

 Germ, well enough to describe 69 species and 23 genera of 



American material. Professor Hoppe at Hanover, born 

 Hoppe 1760, lived until 1846. Gravenhorst worked in Bruns- 

 Grav. wick from 1802 to 1841. He worked carefully over 



the Staphylinidae, having 85 American species and 

 Ahr. 10 genera to his credit. Ahrens was at Halle and 

 Steph. added a few species. Stephens, in England, bom 1792, 



added 9 species and 39 genera. 

 At this point, one must revert slightly to the first American 

 collector. A clergyman. Rev. F. V. Melsheimer, a pupil of 

 Professor Knoch of Brunswick, had settled in the interior of 

 Pennsylvania, and made a beetle collection, the types of which, 

 fortunately, exist to-day. In addition he actually published 

 in 1806 a brave attempt at a catalogue of the beetles of Pennsyl- 

 vania. He corresponded constantly with Dr. Knoch, but often 

 specimens forwarded for comparison were not returned within 

 a year and sometimes lost altogether. For information regarding 



this remarkable man, whose misfortune it was to be 

 Melsh. overshadowed by Thomas Say, every lover of beetles 



should read the article by Dr. H. Hagen in the Canadian 

 Entomologist, Vol. 16, p. 192, and another with original documents 

 by E. A. Schwartz in Proc. Ent. Soc, Wash., Vol. 3, p. 134. 

 The species credited by the check list to Melsheimer are 220, 

 but his collections were merged with those of his two sons, both 

 eminent in the beetle world. Over half a century later Prof. 

 Louis Agassiz bought this whole collection for the Cambridge 

 Museum. Dr. Leconte took out most of the types and kept them 

 in his own cabinet until his death. The understanding made 

 then about the final disposition of the Leconte collection was 

 finally carried out, everything reverting to the Cambridge Museiim. 

 The period 1817 to 1834 marks the greatest epoch of coleop- 

 terous study. This period begins with the activity and ends 

 with the death of Thomas Say, styled by acclamation the 

 Say "Father of American Entomology. A biography of this 

 remarkable man is included in the reprint of his works. 



