Biographical dictionary
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Name |
Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PALMER, Mervyn Grove | 1879 - 1955 | Employed by Walter Rothschild as a collector. Harvey et al (1996) record that many of the insects he collected went either directly to the NHM or via the Rothschild collection. Later Palmer established, and was curator of the Ilfracombe Museum, North Devon, which opened to the public in 1932. Six MS collecting diaries covering the period 1906-1909 when he was in Central and South America are in the NHM. (MD 9/04) | |
| PALMER, Ray | 1896 – 1975 | General entomologist but there are a considerable number of beetles collected by him in the Bedfordshire Natural History Society’s collection. Copies of the MS associated with this are in the North Hertfordshire Museum which also has some of his beetles. There is an obituary of Palmer in Countryside, 1975 (information from Trevor James). (MD 9/04) | |
| PARFITT, Eward | 17 October 1820 – 15 January 1892 | Born near Norwich. His father was Head Gardener to the Dean of Hereford and later to Lord Hastings and Parfitt began in this profession before becoming a sailor. After being shipwrecked at Cape Town, where he spent his time collecting plants and insects, he returned to England as a gardener in Devonshire before being appointed Curator of Taunton Museum in 1850. In 1861 he became Librarian to the Devon and Exeter Institution at Exeter where he remained until his death. During his time at the Institution Parfitt devoted himself to making large local collections of natural history material. These included beetles as is clear from several articles, eg: ‘Some account of the Coleoptera round Exeter’ (Naturalist, 4, 1854, pp.83-85); ‘Description of a species of Bledius new to the British list’ (Zool. 15, 1857, pp.5409-10); and ‘My first beetle hunt for this season’ (EWI., 4, 1858, p.61). In 1865 he reported finding Annomatus quadristriatus in large numbers in Exeter after it had not been recorded from Britain for many years (EMM., 2, 1865, p.13). Gilbert (1977) lists 4 obituaries including EMM., 29, 1893, p.73. (MD 9/04) | |
| PARK, M.A. | There are specimens bearing this name in the collection of N.Herts Museum. (I am grateful to Trevor James for this information). (MD 9/04) | ||
| PARK, T. | Beetles collected by Park are in the collection of West African Coleoptera purchased by Glasgow Museum in 1906 for £2-10s (1906-118). He lived at Bathgate. (MD 9/04) | ||
| PARKINSON, F.B. | Smith (1986), p.140 records that ‘Insects mainly Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera, also Arachnida and Acari from Baviuaan Krantz, Orange River Colony’ are in the HDO. (MD 9/04) | ||
| PARMENTER, Leonard | 22 December 1903 – 4 March 1969 |
A Captain who is best known as a Dipterist but he is mentioned in Gimingham (1955) as a collector of Coleoptera in Hertfordshire and there are specimens bearing this name in the Gimingham collection at N. Herts Museum. (I am grateful to Trevor James for this information). There is an obituary by Ken Smith in EMM, 105, 1969, 149-150, and 6 box files of correspondence in the BENHS library at Dinton Pastures. (MD 9/04, 1/22) |
|
| PARRACK, J.D. | A doctor who was an active member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland and at one time their recorder for birds and Lepidoptera. He was the author of The Naturalist in Majorca (1973). Donated various insects including beetles to the Hancock Museum in 1962, 1969, 1975. (Davis and Brewer (1986), p.113). (MD 9/04) | ||
| PARRY, Frederick John Sidney | 28 October 1810 – 1 February 1885 | A Major (joined the 17th Lancers in 1831 and retired in 1835) who worked on Lucanidae in particular. His first published paper ‘Description of a new genus of Lucanidae from New Zealand’ appeared in Trans.ESL, 12, 1843, p.362. Two years later he published ‘A decade or description of ten new species from the Kasya Hills near the boundary of the Assam district’ (ibid., 4, 1845, pp.84-87) and this was followed by 17 further papers the last being ‘Description of a new species of Chiasognathus’ (EMM., 12, 1876, p.174). Perhaps his most important papers were his ‘Catalogue of Lucanoid Coleoptera with illustrations and descriptions of various new and interesting species’ in Trans.ESL., (3)2, 1864-66, pp. 1-113, and the follow up Revision of 1870. These listed 357 species. Parry was a friend of J.O.Westwood , who illustrated several of his papers, and is mentioned in the Janson diary at Cambridge eg. February 1870. He lived in Onslow Square, London close to the NHM. His obituary in EMM., 1885, p.240 records that ‘at one time he had a general collection of Coleoptera, but latterly it was limited to Lucanidae and Cetoniidae, the former being very valuable, and probably the most complete in existence’. Some of these insects are presumably those now in the HDO given in 1858, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1867 and purchased at auction in 1885. (These are detailed in Smith (1986), p.140). Parry’s library was sold by Stevens in 327 lots on 16 May 1885 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976), p.118). Gilbert (1977) lists 5 obituaries in addition to that mentioned above. Member ELS from 1840. FLS from 1842. (MD 9/04) | |
| PARSONS, M.S. |
Joint author with Hyman, P.S. of A Review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain, UK Nature Conservation, 12. Peterborough JNCC. 1992, 1994. |