12 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. IX 



ber of collecting expeditions. It was at his expense that Lebas 

 and a party of six visited the United States of Columbia. Lebas 

 stayed there five years, picking up small beetles. "Most of 

 these," observes Dejean, "are new to science." Bonpland, for 

 years a captive in Paraguay, gave him specimens. Desjardins 

 himself was envoy from Dejean to Mauritius. In 1822 he 

 became the titular patron of Latreille, an arrangement which 

 lasted for nine years, until the latter was elected Curator in 

 Chief of the Museum. In 1826 he gave to Latreille his Lepidop- 

 tera and what he had in all other orders except Coleoptera, but 

 as there was already talk of a Museum position for Latreille, 

 Dejean bought them all back again, and with them all the beetles 

 which Latreille had. This accession added 1,700 species to 

 Dejean's collection, which now numbered 20,000 species of 

 beetles and an enormous aggregate of other orders. An entire 

 year was devoted to cataloguing and describing the Latreille 

 beetles. Dejean's next catalogue came out in 1836. Fortune 

 had dealt kindly with him. He was now Count Dejean, Peer 

 and Councillor of France. It is of more consequence that he 

 had 20,909 species of beetles, exclusive of the mass of unworked 

 material. The last enumeration was published in 1837, 22,399 

 species. There are few larger private collections today, and it 

 must be remembered that the number of described beetles was 

 then less than half what it is now. Beyond a doubt his is the 

 most famous collection in the world. 



Dejean conceived a greater project. Stephens' British 

 Entomology, with its wonderful plates, had not then appeared. 

 Germar, in Germany, had just begun to publish fine colored 

 plates. The great work was that of Panzer, 1790, with over 

 2,200 colored plates, touching all orders. It was Dejean's idea 

 to create a work in which every species known in the world should 

 be covered in text and illustration. Dr. J. A. Boisduval, with 

 his old friends Duponchel and Dumeril, were to handle the Lepi- 

 doptera. Latreille was to handle the major classification and the 

 generalities. It was estimated that the whole work could be 

 produced at a cost of a million francs. It was due mainly to 

 Latreille that the work was not done, for Latreille was the one 

 scholar who realized the task was too great for any one combina- 

 tion of brains and the one worker in the ranks who threw away 



