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 descending Dates Biography
STOTT, Charles Ernest 18 September 1868 - 28 May 1935 Born in Manchester, the youngest son of James Stott of Basford Hall, Stoke on Trent. Began his business career there but transferred to London as Continental traffic manager of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company and the Goole Steamship Company. Lived in Reigate until his retirement in 1927. Stott was interested in entomology from boyhood, first as Lepidopterist and then as a Coleopterist. Member of the North Staffordshire Field Club and contributed records to Sharp (1908) who notices that he lived at Swinton, near Manchester and was formerly resident at Bolton le Moors. He published a number of notes in EMM, his best known discovery being of Cryptocephalus decemmaculatus at Chartley Moss after a lapse of nearly sixty years. Another interesting note concerned the occurrence of the New Zealand Lathriidid Lithostygnus serripennis at his home in Reigate in 1928, at that time known only from the type in the NHM. He moved back north in later life (Armitage in Staffordshire) Stott’s collection amounting to 21,000 specimens is now in the City Museum, Stoke-on-Trent. Other specimens collected by him are at Warrington (Hancock and Pettit (1981); the B.S.Williams collection at Liverpool includes insects labelled CES (eg. Callidium violaceum, Box Hill, June 1926) which is presumably Stott; there are specimens collected by him in the D.G.Hall collection at the North Hertfordshire Museum (Information from Trevor James) and in Colin Johnson’s weevil collection at Manchester. FESL from 1915. There is an obituary in EMM., 71, 1935, pp.212-13, and I have a reference to him in Trans.N.Staffs.Field Club, 70, 1935-36, which I have not seen. (MD 11/04)
STRACHAN, H. In 1900 the HDO acquired 212 insects of many orders collected by Strachan in Lagos , chiefly the Ogun River Basin. (Smith(1986) p.153). (MD 11/04)
STRACHAN, Miss There is a specimen of Drypta dentata from Salisbury in the Waterhouse collection at RSM bearing this name. (MD 11/04)
STRACHAN, S.L. The HDO acquired in 1839 some boxes of insects, chiefly Coleoptera, from Sierra Leone from Strachan. Some of the specimens were preserved in gin. (Smith (1986) p.153). (MD 11/04)
SUTTON, G.R. Glasgow Museum acquired two boxes of British beetles, including insects collected by Sutton, at the sale of the National Butterfly Museum on 27 October 1983, lots 922-923. Specimens with labels give Hertfordshire and Essex localities and are dated 1931-32. One box contained Dytiscus, Carabus, etc. and the other Lucanus, Prionus, etc.. Some of the specimens bear the name D.Wright and Sussex localities in 1972. Sutton was a member of the SLENHS (Information from Geoff Hancock). (MD 11/04)
SWAIN, H.D. There are specimens from Surrey bearing this name in the D.G.Hall collection at the North Hertfordshire Museum. (Information from Trevor James). (MD 11/04)
SWAINSON, W Stephens (1828) pp.75,80 refers to the collection of the ‘late Mr W. Swainson’. I assume, therefore, that this cannot be William Swainson (1789 – 7 December 1855) who published on insects and was an active member of the ESL from 1837. A box of exotic Chrysomelidae and another of exotic Curculionidae ‘ex collection W.Swainson’, are in the Cambridge Museum, and Smith (1986) p.88 refers to letters, woodcuts, etc. in the HDO dating from 1828-33. (MD 11/04)
SWALE, Harold 1853 – 3 May 1919 Born in Brittany the second son of Rev H.J.Swale of Ingfield Hall, Settle. Entered the medical profession and settled at Tavistock.. His main interest was in the Hymenoptera but he made extensive collections of Coleoptera particularly in New Zealand where he spent three years from 1900 and later during other appointments he took in Africa, India, New Zealand, again, and Samoa. H.E.Andrewes states in his obituary in EMM., 55, 1919, pp.140-41, that Swale gave many of his Coleoptera during his lifetime (they knew each other for some sixty years) to him and to the NHM. Swale’s wife, who accompanied him on many of his field trips, gave his remaining Coleoptera and Hymenoptera to the NHM after his death in 1919. There are some ms notes by him on Hymenoptera in the NHM too. (MD 11/04)
SWANZY, Andrew 1817-1880 and Francis 1854 – 1920 Brothers who collected Coleoptera in both England and Africa which were aquired by Sevenoaks Museum in 1932. (MD 11/04)
SWINHOE, Ernest A collection of Coleoptera formed by this insect dealer, who lived in Oxford 1894 -1914 and was particularly interested in exotic butterflies, was acquired by Bastian Brothers of Reading in 1898. (MD 11/04)

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