10 Bulletin of the Brool^lyn Entomological Society Vol. ix 



him into nine genera. Latreille has a total of 98 genera and one 

 species in our check list. 



A common meeting place for these fellow workers existed 

 only at times. Geoffroy kept open house until 1790, but, having 

 incurred the displeasure of the Commune, he retired to Char- 

 treuse, where he lived in retirement until his death in 1810. 

 Having a Professorship with a State foundation, Olivier retained 

 his income through all political castastrophes, and from 1800 

 until his death in 1814 sheltered poor Latreille, who otherwise 

 might have had occasional difficulty in escaping starvation. 

 Fabricius, when in Paris, always dated letters from the house of 

 Olivier. 



That greatest of human overturns which drove Geoffroy to 

 the refuge of a monastery and sent Latreille on the way to 

 transportation for life lifted into wealth and fame another cole- 

 opterist, fully as well known as his predecessors, although of 

 almost opposite mould of character and not to be classed as a 

 scholar of the same calibre. 



Auguste Dejean was born at Amiens in 1780, of a respec- 

 table family, but not one of wealth or nobility. As a lad he 

 found a companion in Dumeril, who was six years his senior 

 and who became one of the best known entomologists of France. 

 Togethe they collected butterflies. Duponchel spent a summer 

 with them and the three became lifelong friends. Dejean was 

 then 13 years old, Duponchel and Dumeril of an age. A few 

 months later Dejean abandoned butterflies for beetles and never 

 gave up the hobby a day in his whole life. 



Fate plays strange tricks. Two years later Dejean was 

 carrying a musket of the republic. He was "citizen Dejean" 

 then. In 1802 the Army of the North returned to Paris on a 

 brief furlough. Here Dejean made arrangements to preserve 

 the collection he had already acquired and here he met Olivier, 

 Latreille, Duboscq and many others. At this time he had printed 

 for private distribution a catalogue of his collection, 910 species 

 of beetles, of which 50 were exotic. 



Thirty-five years later, when Dejean was in the height of 

 his glory, he found a hundred or so copies of this pamphlet and 

 distr'buted them at a meeting of the Entomological Society. 

 About 20 copies are known to be extant. 



