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
AIRY SHAW, Herbert Kenneth See SHAW, Herbert Kenneth Airy
ADAMSON, Charles Henry Ellison d. 25 June 1930

Fowler (1912: 481) named Paussus adamsoni after Adamson who collected it at Minhu, Irawadi when stationed there as a Colonel in the Royal Artillery.  Later he became Assistant Commissioner and Chief Magistrate in Mandalay before leaving Burma after more than twenty years. On his return to England he lived at Crag Hall, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Davis & Brewer (1986) record that collections of Lepidoptera and ethnographical material made by him are in the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, together with published catalogues, but do not mention Coleoptera.

Committee member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland from 1897, Hon. Curator, Invertebrate Zoology, 1897, Vice- President, 1903-07. (MD 7.01, 9/22)

ADAMS, Herbert Jordan 1838-1912

Primarily interested in Lepidoptera but Chalmers-Hunt (1976) records that some British Coleoptera were auctioned by Stevens on 24 September 1912. Adams, who lived in Enfield for most of his life, was the brother of Frederick Charlstrom Adams and one of the founder members of the Enfield Entomological Society. He gave one collection to that Society and another, formed during the last thirty years of his life, of Lepidoptera to the Naural History Museum. This last (140,000 specimens) was given with the stipulation that it should be known as the ‘Adams Collection’.

In a manuscript journal now in the University Museum, Cambridge, Oliver Janson records that he acquired beetles at the sale of the ‘Adams Collection’ in May 1873 and perhaps this may have been an earlier collection formed by him. Correspondence relating to the sale is in the Janson archive in the Natural History Museum.

There are obituaries in Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (1912, 48: 243) and Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (1912: clxv).

FES 1877-1912. (MD 7.01, 9/22)

ADAMS, Frederick Charlstrom d. February 1920

Best known as a New Forest Dipterist (see his collections are in the Natural History Museum) but he did show an example of Cantharis rustica Fallen at the Entomological Society in 1892 (Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London 1892: iv) and I have seen beetles collected by him in the general collection at Doncaster Museum.

Chalmers-Hunt (1976) notices that a collection of beetles formed by Adams was auctioned by Stevens on 11 March 1919, but Hancock & Pettit (1981) state that this was, in fact, a collection of Diptera in six boxes and is now in Bolton Museum and Art Gallery. There is a letter from Adams to C.B. Wainwright from Victoria Street, London SW dated 1909 in the Royal Entomological Society (Pedersen (2002: 118). There are obituaries in Entomologist's News (1921, 32: 64), and Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (1920, 56: 256. (MD 7.01, 11/09, 9/22)

ADAMS, Arthur 1820-1878

Published a ‘Systematic list of the Coleoptera found in the vicinity of Alverstoke, South Hants.’ in Zoologist (1856-58:14-16). Immediately after he seems to have travelled to the Far East, notes about the beetles he found there being published in Zoologist. in 1860, 1861 and 1863, and in Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1861. Nissen (1969) lists him as the Editor of The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Samarang under the Command of Capt. Sir Edward Belcher during the years 1843-46, (1848-), 1850, which includes 106 plates of insects, and as a contributor to G.B. Sowerby, Thesaurus Conchyliorum, (1842: 1847-87). In 1870 he published a book entitled Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria. Listed in Entomologist's Annual (1860), at Brook Cottage, Alverstoke, Hants., together with his wife who is also recorded to have an interest in British beetles.

There are Coleoptera collected by him in the Rippon Collection, National Museum of Wales. (Information from A.H.Kirk-Spriggs). (MD 7.01, 9/22)

ACKLAND, M.

There are Coleoptera bearing this name in the collection at Oldham Museum (Information from S. Hayhow). Perhaps this is D.M. Ackland see above. (MD 7.01, 9/22)

ACKLAND, David Michael 1927 – 2021

Well known Dipterist but his interest as a teenager was with ants which led to a meeting with Horace Donisthorpe and to his only publication to mention beetles 'Dorcus parallelipipedus (L.) and ant’s nest in the same tree’, in Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (1943, 79: 251). His address is given as 17 Grange Park, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol.  There is an obituary including bibliography and photograph in the same periodical (2021, 57: 243-247). (MD 1/22, 9/22)

ABRAHAM, J.

Stephens (1828-36, 1: 48) records that a J. Abraham presented him with a ‘fine and perfect’ male of Carabus intricatus found in some dried wood brought from the vicinity of Ashburton. (MD 7.01, 9/22)

ABRAHAM, J

Gave 37 beetles from Belgium to the Natural History Museum in 1965 and in the following year 1332 from Portugal collected with M. Bacchus. (MD 8/17, 9/22)

ABRAHAM, A.A.

143 Coleoptera collected by Abraham from various localities were part of the Imperial Institute of Entomology gifts to the Natural History Museum in October 1920 and November 1922. (MD 8/17, 9/22)

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