ra2:)hy. 41 



Franco, whose experiments and researclies are of special inter- 

 est to the apiarists. Perhaps no entomologist has done more 

 to reveal the natural history of hees. Especially to he com- 

 mended are his method of exjieriuienting, his patience in in- 

 vestigation, the elegance and felicity of his word inctures, and, 

 above all, hi» dt'voUoti to truth. We shall have occasion to 

 speak of this conscientious and indefatigable worker in the 

 great iield of insect life frequently in the following pages. 

 Bonnet, of Geneva, the able correspondent of Eeaumur, also 

 did valuable work, in which the lover of hees has a special 

 interest. Bonnet is specially noted for his discovery and 

 elucidation of parthenogenesis — that anomalous mode of re- 

 production — as it occurs among' the Aphides, or plant-lice, 

 though he did not discover that our bees, in the production 

 of drones, illustrate the same doctrine. Though the author 

 of no system, he gave much aid to lieaumur in his systematic 

 labor. 



At this same period systematic entomology received great 

 aid from Lyonnet's valuable work. This author dissected 

 and explained the development of a caterpillar. His descrip- 

 tions and illustrations are wonderful, and will proclaim his 

 ability as long as entomology is studied, and they, to quote 

 Bonnet, "demonstrate the existence of God." 



We liave next to speak of the great Dane, Fabricius — a 

 student of Linnteus — who published his works from 1775 to 

 1798, and thus was revolutionizing systematic entomology at 

 the same time that we of America were revolutionizing gov- 

 ernment. He made the mouth organs the basis of his classi- 

 fication, and thus follo^ved in the path which DeGeer had 

 marked out; though it was .scarcely beaten by the latter, 

 ■while Fabricius left it wide and deep. His classes and orders 

 are no improvement on, in fact, are not nearly as correct as 

 his old master's. In his description of genera — where he pre- 

 tended to follow nature — he has rendered valuable service. 

 In leading scientists to study parts, before little regarded, and 

 thus to better establish affinities, he did a most valuable work. 

 His work is a standard, and should be thoroughly stuflied by 

 all entomologists. 



Just at the close of the last century, appeared the "great- 

 est Roman of them all," the great Latreille, of France, 

 whose name we have so frequently used in the classificatioB 



