Biographical dictionary
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Name |
Dates | Biography | |
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| BONAPARTE-WYSE, L.H. | Published several notes on Irish Coleoptera in Irish Naturalist between 1911 and 1916. (MD 10/01) | ||
| BOND, William James |
Published the capture of Leptura scutellata, Platypus cylindrus, and Clytus arcuatus in Hainault Forest in 1829 (Ent.mon.Mag., 82, 1, 1833, 211-212. In the note he refers to a Mr Bydder as his 'old friend and instructor in entomology'. Two further notes in the same periodical do not refer to Coleoptera. Lott (2009),10, records that he is mentioned by F. Bates as a collector in Leicestershire in 1849. (MD 10/01,11/09) |
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| BOOCOCK, Denis | Worked particularly on insects attacking trees and timber, and set up a pest control company in Abu Dhabi. (MD 3/03) | ||
| BOON, O.C. | A collection of Coleoptera which Boon made in Dorset in the 1940s and 1950s is in Hull University, Department of Zoology. He may have lived at Herringston, near Dorchester as most of the more common species were taken there at various dates. There is also some material in the collection from the Isle of Wight. (Information from Roger Key) (MD 10/01) | ||
| BOSWELL (SYME), John Thomas | 1822-31 January 1888 |
At one time known as Boswell Syme. Born in Edinburgh and educated as a Civil Engineer, but gave this up after a time to become a botanist, a subject on which he lectured at the Charing Cross and Middlesex Hospitals. Well known as the concluder of Sowerby's English Botany. On the death of a relative in about 1868 he succeeded to the family estate at Balmuto and it was at this time that he dropped the name Syme. Boswell is known to have been interested in entomology as well as botany, and to have formed a fine collection of Lepidoptera. A note entitled 'Coleoptera of Scotland, a correction' in the Scot.Nat., 82, 5, 1880, 311, however, makes clear that he collected beetles too. The note refers to David Sharp having copied Murray's earlier statement that Boswell had taken Magdalinus atramentarius at 'Dollar': 'I fancy the mistake arose from Mr Murray mistaking 'Dover' for 'Dollar' as I have specimens in my cabinet from the former place'. There are obituary notices in Ent.mon.Mag., 24,1888, 235; and in Psyche, 82, 5, 1889, 156. (MD 10/01) |
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| BOSWELL, C. |
Lott (2009),10, records that he is mentioned by F. Bates as a collector in Leicestershire in 1848-49 (MD 11/09) |
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| BOUCHARD, Peter | 4 April 1816 – 1865 |
Notes in the Ent.Ann., 1857, 16, and 1860, 5, state that Bouchard 'Collects for entomologists and sells'. His address is given as Marling Pitts Cottage, Sutton, Surrey. Chalmers Hunt (1976),103, records that a collection of British insects belonging to Bouchard was sold by Stevens on 28 March 1865; and perhaps he is the 'Boucard, Natural History dealer' who sold 309 lots of natural history items, including insects, at Stevens on 7 November 1879 (p.113) Smith (1986) records various insects including Coleoptera, purchased from him between 1868 and 1889, now in the HDO. Brian E. Bouchard informs me that Peter Bouchard was his great, great grandfather ‘of Huguenot descent, was born... in Bethnal Green. When he married in 1838 his occupation was Hearth Rug Maker but he was active as an [amateur?] entomologist by 1845. The family moved to Sutton around 1855/56 so, it is believed, that he could collect specimens on the North Downs and elsewhere, subsequently making his living as a ‘Naturalist’. A dispute with H.J.Harding, President of the Haggerstone Entomological Society, led to a libel case in 1860 which involved Messers Newman and Stainton and the Entomologists Weekly Intelligencer. A small claim to celebrity is based on his discovery of Ophiodes lunaris at Killarney during 1864 vide a Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland by W.F. De Vismes Kane, 1901. A major interest was microlepidoptera. The NHM registers reveal various donations and sales to that institution between 1857 and 1866 including specimens sent back to Stevens from the ill-fated trip to South America. A report of his demise may be found in the EMM, 2, 1865.’ [This states: ‘The President regretted to announce....the death of Mr Peter Bouchard, so well known to all British entomologists. Mr Bouchard had proceeded to Santa Martha, in New Granada, in order to collect insects, and had already sent home a valuable collection, when he was seized with fever, which carried him off in four days’]. (MD 10/01, 10/03) |
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| BOUSKELL, Frank | 1870 – 1 February 1952 |
A solicitor who lived and died at Market Boswell in Leicestershire and is reported to have ‘brought an old world fragrance to the profession of the law by invariably wearing a buttonhole flower’ (obituary in Leicester Evening Mail, 2 February 1952. He is listed in the Naturalist's Directory, 1904-5 at Market Bosworth, Nuneaton and in the same periodical in 1906-7 at Sandown Road, Knighton, Leicestershire His work on Coleoptera in Leicestershire between 1885 and 1907 is discussed by Lott in the chapter titled ‘1893-1907 Bouskell and friends’ (19-24). Bouskell was the first secretary of the newly formed Leicester Entomological Club whose Chairman was Frederick Bates. The numerous records listed in the annual reports of the Club’s outings, which appeared in the Trans. of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, were compiled and written, at least in the beginning, largely by the two men. From small beginnings the Club expanded quickly. Local excursions were organised three or four times a year together with an annual four-day visit to the New Forest at Whitsun and a weekend at Wicken Fen in August. When the first conversazione was held in 1895 it attracted 150 people. Several members were acquired from out of county including Bertram Rye, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, Tutt and Donisthorpe. In a contribution to the last’s obituary Bouskell described Donisthorpe who had been born in Leicestershire, as ‘his oldest friend’. The success of the Club was attributed in large measure to Bouskell who remained as hon. Secretary until 1905 and as chairman or vice-chairman until 1912. His first published entomological note was on the Lepidoptera, but by 1893 when he wrote 'Oberea oculata (L) at Wicken' in ERJV, 4, 1893, 272, his attention appears to have turned mainly to the Coleoptera, although he did retain his interest in butterflies. Subsequently, he published a number of other articles in this periodical, in one of which he mentions collecting with Donisthorpe and Headley (10, 1898,19-22) and in another with the Reverend Birkenhead near Market Harborough, Leicestershire. (15, 1903, 288). Other notes refer to collecting in the New Forest. He also published one article on parthenogenesis in Transactions Leicester Literary Philosophical Society, 4, 1897, 418-27, the periodical which includes most of his other published material, and the section on insects in the VCH of Rutland, 1907, 64-94. Lott notes of this last that ‘it has many gaps represented by common species that were presumably meant to be taken as read and considered too uninteresting to enumerate... unfortunately, the main manuscript on which it was based has been lost together with previous lists by Matthews and Bates that provided a foundation. This loss probably happened during a house fire at Bouskell’s home’. It was probably this fire that Donisthorpe reported as having destroyed Bouskell’s collection. Lott (2009) lists some of his publications relating to Leicestershire. Pedersen (2002), 119, records that there is correspondence dated 1893 with C.J. Wainwright in the RES. Surprisingly no obituary notices of him a[party from the one mentioned above are recorded. (MD 10/01, 11/09) |
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| BOWELL, Ernest W.W. |
Published a number of articles on Lepidoptera and two on Coleoptera: 'Agrilus sinuatus in the New Forest' (Entomologist's Rec.J.Var., 2, 1891, 112) and 'Coleoptera in Herefordshire' (ibid, 3, 1892, 86). The New Forest Agrilus are now in the HDO (Smith 1986,105) and the second is a list of Longicornia only. Bowell gives his address at these times as Wadham College, Oxford, and Staplehurst, Kent. (MD 10/01) |
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| BOWHILL, James W. | The register in the entomological Department at the RSM records the acquisition of a general collection of insects made by Bowhill from his wife in 1931 (1931.29). She lived at Morelands, Grange Loan, Edinburgh. (MD 10/01) |