Among the numerous objects of natural history and art collected by J. W. von Goethe, relatively few insect specimens and insect imitations may be seen in the Goethe-Nationalmuseum at Weimar. A marvellous iridescent curculionid beetle, Entimus imperialis (Figs 1a,b), some intact silkworm moth cocoons and wasp nests as well as five ancient sculptures of insects remained in the above collections. There are two beautiful imitations of a male Cicada (Tibicen), carved in blackish-green serpentine which probably originated from ancient Greece (Figs 6a-d), a sculptured imaginary insect revealing the characteristics of a beetle and a hemipteran bug (Figs 7a, b) as well as two yellowish faience-made imitations of the dung beetle genera Scarabaeus and Catharsius, of ancient Egyptian origin (Figs 8a, c and 9a, b). The underside of the faience Scarabaeus reveals a male dwarf on top of the sign nb of the Egyptian Sovereign and symbolizes the Creator-God Ptah of Memphis (Fig. 8b), while the underside of the faience Catharsius shows the Supreme God's name Amun in two types of writing (Fig. 8d). Such dung beetle imitations were commonly employed in ancient Egypt and served as apotropaic amulets. Goethe's entomological work includes comparative anatomical studies concerning the external and internal metamorphosis and wing formation of the magpie moth Abraxas grossulariata (Fig. 2), the convolvulus hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli (Fig. 5), the spurge hawk-moth Hyles euphorbiae (Fig. 4), the privet hawk-moth Sphinx ligustri as well as the silkworm moth Bombyx mori (Fig. 3). He also observed larval parasitation in certain lepidopterous species by caterpillar flies (Tachinidae) and ichneumon flies (Ichneumonidae) and attempted to device taxonomic systems classifying the Apidae and Lepidoptera. Goethe's biological investigations were certainly not performed in congruence with current scientific research and the results obtained can hardly be incorporated to present-day life science. However, Goethe's findings are nowadays as interesting and significant as they were in former time. none