ENTOMOLOGY & ZOOLOGY. Set of 4 documents:... Lot 18

ENTOMOLOGY & ZOOLOGY. Set of 4 documents: - Philogène Auguste Joseph DUPONCHEL (1774-1846) French entomologist, specialist in Lepidoptera. 2 autograph letters signed, one to Strasbourg entomologist and printer Gustave Silbermann (1801-1876), the other to entomologist and librarian Étienne Mulsant (1797-1880). Paris, January 25, 1833 and March 17, 1841. 5 ½ pp. in-4. Duponchel cannot make a firm commitment to write for an entomological journal, as he is in the process of having two works published by the Société d'entomologie, of which they are both members. He mentions the description of a new species of insect. The second letter concerns Duponchel's research, intended to inform Mulsant, about the Eschscholtz oxyomur. "I have consulted all the coleopterists in Paris and they all agree that this genus has never been published and that it is a catalog or collection name, like so many others adopted by M. Dejean". On the subject of Gymnopleurus asperatus [small black beetle], described by Steven during his travels in the Caucasus and northern Russia: the memoirs (7 to 8 volumes) containing said descriptions, "were scattered among those of the naturalists of the Imperial Academy of Moscow, which [...] were burnt in the Moscow fire of 1812. As chance would have it, your Gymnopleurus asperatus is precisely described in one of these burnt volumes". Alexander Grigorievitch Fischer von Waldheim (1803-1884), zoologist and botanist, president of the Imperial Society of Moscow Naturalists, "has since had the burnt volumes reprinted; but neither the Institute nor the Museum has yet sought to procure it". Duponchel then refers to the representation of the larva of the Dorcus parallelipipedus (also known as the "little hind", a very large black beetle), in the work of John Obadiah Westwood (1805-1893), on loan from the entomologist Gustave du Bois, baron de Romand (1810-1871). - Émile BLANCHARD (1819-1900), French entomologist and ichthyologist, Chair of Natural History of Crustaceans, Arachnids and Insects at the Muséum Autograph letter signed and addressed to a "dear colleague". Paris, December 1, 1878. 1 p. ½ in-8. Two tiny marginal tears, no damage to text. Blanchard requests "osteological specimens much needed for teaching zoology at the agronomic institute" and addresses a list to the professor of comparative anatomy at the Muséum. - Étienne GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE]. Portrait engraved on copper by A. Freart. 14 x 12 cm (on a 27 x 18.7 cm sheet). Beautiful medal portrait of the great naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in profile. The naturalist's face is surmounted by the word "Utilitati" and surrounded by an array of animals: monkey, rodent, bird-like crocodile (with a small bird in its mouth), fish and Egyptian sarcophagus with hieroglyphs (representing birds, among other things), leaves and plants. This portrait comes from the work published during E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's lifetime: Discours sur l'Histoire universelle, published by Curmer [Paris, 1839], for which A. Feart drew the illustrations.