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
BENSON, Roy Farmes

Lepidopterist who also worked on  Coleoptera. Lived at Gathurst, near Wigan, Lancs. FRES 1949-52 (MD 3/03)

BENNIS, E.H.

Published ‘Carabus clathratus in Co. Clare’ in Irish Naturalist, 28, 1919, 91. (MD10/01)

BENNETT, William Henry 1862-1931

Born and died in Hastings. His father was Henry Edward Bennett, a pork butcher in George Street, and when he died William Henry took over the business at an early age. He remained in this profession throughout his working life.

Horace Donisthorpe, writing Bennett's obituary in Entromologist's Rec.J.Var., 43, 1931, 92 noted: ‘he was a very good all-round naturalist, not only as an entomologist - specialising in Coleoptera - but also as an ornithologist, etc.. He had a wonderful genius for field work, and we well remember collecting with him in the early 90s s and also later... Every entomologist who visited Hastings always went to see Bennett to secure his help and advice’.

Bennett's first article added Lebia turcica P. to the British list (Ent.mon.Mag., 20, 1884, 8) and subsequently he went on to add Ochthebius lejolisi Muls. (found in rock pools at Ilfracombe) and Anthonomus rufus Schon.. Ilyobates bennetti, found with ants in Bexhill High Wood in 1907, was named after him by Donisthorpe in 1914. Bennett also compiled A New Exchange List of British Coleoptera (nd) as is confirmed in a note by N.F. McMillan pasted into the copy in the RESL library which records that J.R.le B.Tomlin had given him the following information on 22 April 1942: ‘Also a Coleoptera List published here [Hastings] many years ago by Bennett, a local butcher, who was very keen and who I often went out with. Now that he is dead and his list is scarce I am being asked about it and have recently had several requests for a copy. When he died I overhauled his books etc. at his widow’s request and there were a lot of these lists left which we mostly destroyed’ (I am grateful to Eric Gowing-Scopes for this information).

Bennett’s collection, housed in a twenty drawer cabinet, was given to Hastings Museum by the Hastings and St. Leonards Museum Association which purchased it from Bennett, in 1913. There are also beetles collected by him in the R. Wilding collection in Liverpool Museum.

FRES 1897-1909. (MD 10/01)

BENNETT, Major

Collected Rutelinae in Darjeeling, India. (Arrow, G.J., FBI, Rutelinae, 1917, references around p.230) (MD 10/01)

BELT, Thomas 1832-187-

There are specimens in the Rippon collection at Cardiff collected by Belt (Information from Ashley Kirk Spriggs). (MD 8/17)

 

BELL, J.W.B

A Reverend at Pyrton. Smith (1986) notices two species of Buprestidae caught by him in Champion Bay, Australia in 1889, in the HDO, together with a collection of Lepidoptera. He was related to G.V.Bell who collected insects of various orders in Malaya which are also now in the HDO (presented by Mrs Bell in 1920). (MD 10/01)

BEEVOR, W.A.

Published the capture of six specimens of Aderus brevicornis Perris at Heathfield, Sussex in Ent.mon.Mag., 34, 1898, 279. These are now lost and A.A. Allen wrote a note to the same periodical (96, 1960, 48) asking for any information about them. Was Beevor related perhaps to A. Beevor of Horningham who is listed as a subscriber to H. Denny, Pselaphidarum et Scydmaenidarum Britanniae, 1825? (MD 10/01)

BEESON, C.F.C

Attached to the Forestry Research Institute at Dehra Dun, India. Arrow, G.J., FBI, Rutelinae, 1917, mentions beetles collected by him, and there are specimens in the Pusa Institute, Delhi which bear his name and the date 1919. (MD 10/01)

BEDWELL, Ernest Charles 11 October 1875 - 4 April 1945

Born at Carlton Colville and educated at North Walsham Grammar School. He was for many years on the surveying staff of Messers Farebrother, Ellis and Co. where he was always known as 'Mr Bugs', and from which he retired in 1939.

Bedwell began by collecting Lepidoptera, but A.M. Massee notes that 'at the age of 20 he changed to the Coleoptera, which he collected assiduously until his death. His magnificent collection of beautifully set beetles is very complete, and such difficult genera as Atheta, Colon, Epuraea, and Meligethes often so poorly represented in collections - are very complete. Bedwell’s favourite group was the Sternoxia, ‘of which the 'clicks' make a very impressive series.’ He also collected the Hemiptera – Heteroptera and succeeded in taking all but thirty of the 500 recorded British species. A species of Microphysidae, Myrmedobia bedwelli, which he discovered at the Lizard in 1932 was named after him by W.E. China.

Bedwell's first publication on the Coleoptera 'Cryptocephalus exiguus: an addition to the Suffolk fauna’ appeared in Ent.mon.Mag., 35, 1899, 45-46, and was followed by many others. An important early publication was his list of the Coleoptera of Oulton Broad and district (Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., 11, 1899, 298-300, 335-338). The insects were taken in a fifteen month period ending in April 1899. In naming them he was much helped by Claude Morley.

Bedwell bequeathed his collection to the Castle Museum, Norwich where it is maintained separately (number 115.1945). The Accession register states that the collection includes ‘c.26,000 specimens with full data’, of which ‘16,558 have been remounted recently and arranged in cabinets’. The rest are in store boxes. Included with the collection are Newberry and Sharp's Exchange List, 1915, marked up with complete and in-complete sets and single specimens; three volumes listing localities visited between 1898 and 1942; six volumes listing captures between 1896 and 1932 (these include the names of companions eg. Tottenham, Sharp, Nicholson, etc. and several photographs); and an envelope containing A catalogue of the Tactiyporinae in E.C.Bedwell's Collection by Ismay, and correspondence about the collection going to Norwich. A note indicates that Bedwell arranged the collection according to A. Winkler, Catalogus Coleop., Vienna 1924-5.

Other specimens collected by Bedwell are in the Waterhouse Collection in the RSM, and in the HDO. Letters from Bedwell concerning B.S.Williams' collection, which he was instrumental in obtaining for the Liverpool Museum, are in that Museum. Two are interesting: Bedwell to Dr Allan, 3 December 1941 ‘I took on the disposal of the libraries of E.A. Buckley, Easbury[?], and Stott as they were personal friends and I still have some in hand ... they are in store as I been bombed out of my house'. And Bedwell to Harry Britten, 12 September 1941: 'Please excuse this short letter but my hands are so bad this morning I can hardly hold the pen...’. Other specimens collected by Bedwell are in the RHS (over 100 specimens mainly Carabidae Information from Andy Salisbury). Letters from Bedwell concerning B.S. Williams' collection, which he was instrumental in obtaining for the Liverpool Museum, are in that Museum. 

Apart from the account by Massee already mentioned there are others in Ent.mon.Mag., 81, 1945, p.143 (by P. Harwood); Proc.R.ent.Soc.Lond., 1O(C), 1945-6, p. 53 (by G.Carpenter), and Transactions Suffolk Naturalists Society., 5, 1945, xcvii-xcviii. There are also many references to him in Morley(1899).

FRES 1899, Vice-President 1922, Council 1917-19, 1922-24 and 1929-31, and in 1940 was made a Special Life Fellow in recognition of his services to the Society as Surveyor.  (MD 10/01, 1/07)

BECKWITH

Stephens (1828-1831) 1, 38, records that a specimen from Beckwith's collection was in that of J. Vigors. Is this perhaps the J. Beckwith whose drawing on vellum in pen and coloured inks of moths dated 1788 is in the RES? (Pedersen (2002), 153). (MD 10/01, 11/09)

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