Biographical dictionary

The Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists is compiled and maintained by Michael Darby. The Dictionary can be accessed below, and see also the additional information provide by Michael:

Michael would be pleased to hear from anyone wishing to make corrections or alterations to the Dictionary, which will be fully acknowledged. Email Michael Darby or write to Michael at 33 Bedwin Street, SALISBURY, Wiltshire, SP1 3UT.

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Namesort ascending Dates Biography
BILLUPS, C.R.

A doctor. He is listed in the Naturalist's Directory, 1904-7, as interested in Coleoptera alone. His address is given as c/o J.F. Dutton, Gorse Hill, Selsby. Letters from him are preserved in the Sharpe correspondence at Liverpool. (MD 8/17)

BIGNELL, George Carter 1826 – 1910

Primarily a parasitic Hymenopterist but also collected other insects including beetles. He was closely associated with the young J.H.Keys and his father, and like JHK was a keen microscopist/micro-photographer. His obituary by J.H. Keys in Ent.mon.Mag, 46, 1910, 94-95, mentions that on a trip to Corsica, with his friend T.A. Marshall, his wife found ‘the unique Anthribid which is now the type of a new genus and species Spathorrhamphus corsicus.’

Most of his collection is in Plymouth Museum (includes Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera) see www.plymouth.gov.uk/museumbignellcollection (Information from Helen Fothergill), and Tony Irwin informs me that there are a number of insects bearing the initials GCB in E.A. Butler's foreign collection of Coleoptera and Hemiptera at Norwich Museum.

Gilbert (1977) lists two further obituaries (MD 10/03, 11/09)

BIGGS, H.E.J.

A Reverend. He appears to have travelled extensively. In 1945 he published 'Two new species of Coleoptera from Persia' (Ent.mon.Mag., 81, p110-111) in which he recorded that he had collected beetles in that country in his spare time for ten years. In 1947 he published in the same journal ‘Rhagonycha montana described from Morocco' (83, 9) and in 1949 he offered Egyptian, Persian, Chinese and Californian Hymenoptera in exchange for Carabids and Tabanid flies (85, XI).

He is listed in the Naturalists Directory, 1948 at The Rectory, Mellis, Near Eye, Suffolk, and described his interests as 'Mollusca, Coleoptera. Collect same esp. near East (Persia and Egypt). Exchange shells and beetles. Sell a few shells of deserts available'. Biggs also published on the Diptera of which his most important article was probably a list of the Diptera of East Anglia in Ent.mon.Mag., 1951. (MD 10/01)

BEWLEY, F.

A Reverend who lived at Ballymoney, Co. Antrim in 1858. He published two letters in Ent.Weekly Int., 86, 22 May 1858, 61, and 89, 12 June 1858, 76 in which he informed subscribers that he had various duplicate Coleoptera to give away or exchange ‘I shall be happy to share my captures with any one who sends a box and postage. I wish this offer to be considered quite unconditional yet I should much wish any person who can spare any species of Dytiscidae, any species of Cicindelidae, and Lucanus cervus (male) would be so kind us to send them to me; the box shall be safely returned (not empty)’. (MD 10/01)

BEVAN, E.

An E. Bevan is listed as a subscriber to Denny (1825). Perhaps this is Edward Bevan, (July 1769-31 January 1859), the author of several works on the Honey Bee. A short obituary notice in Ent.Weekly Int., 7, 1859, 160 notices a record of his death in the Hereford Times, 1859, and records that he had been 'blind for several years’. FES 1833-1835. (MD 10/01)

BETTON, C.S. This name, accompanied by the figures '1909-79', appears on labels in the Coleoptera collection at Exeter Museum. (MD 10/01)
BEST, Dudley 1843- 10 June 1928

Born in England but emigrated with his parents to Victoria, Australia in 1850. Became a well-known Coleopterist in Australia and was one of the founder members of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. Morphnos bestii Sl. (1902), Notonomus besti Sl. (1902) and Macrones besti Blkb. (1907) were all named after him. He published some eight or so articles of which 'Longicorn Beetles of Victoria' which appeared in five parts in the Southern Science Record between 1880 and 1882, was perhaps the most important.Best's collection is in the National Museum at Melbourne. There is an obituary in the Victorian Naturalist, Melbourne, XLV, 1928,104-107, by F.G.A. Barnard, which includes a portrait. (MD 10/01)

BERRIDGE, E.W.

Listed in the Ent. Ann., 1860, 4, as interested in British Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. His address is given as Buttermarket, Ipswich. (MD 10/01)

BENTLEY, Joseph

Bentley is mentioned many times in Stephens (1828-1831) from 1828, as a collector of British Coleoptera, sometimes in association with Samouelle and Chant. He was a member of the London Entomological Society between 1780-2, and may be the Mr Bentley of Britannia Street, City, who is listed as a subscriber to Denny (1825). He may have been related to William Bentley (1789-1859), the Lepidopterist, who was also a friend of Chant. (MD 10/01)

BENSON, William Henry 1803-1870

Published three articles on beetles: 'Description of four new species of the Coleopterous family of the Paussidae’ in Calcutta Journal of Natural History, 6, 1846, 459-470, 'Notes on the capture of Paussi at the Cape of Good Hope', Trans.Ent.Soc.Lond., 5, 1847, 30-32; and 'On the possible identity of Paussus lineatus and Pirryanus', Ann.Mag.nat.Hist., (3)7, 1861, 459-463. Fowler (1912) mentions that Benson collected Paussidae at Cawnpur and elsewhere in the United Provinces. (MD 10/01)

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