Well known as the describer of many thousands of new species of insects other than Coleoptera in the collection of the Natural  History Museum, London. He was not a Coleopterist but did publish several papers on beetles: Characters of two undescribed British Coleoptera, Ent. Mag., 4, 1836, 83; Tachinus bipustulatus, Ptinus crenatus, Cryptophagus cellaris [Julus terrestris?], Ent., 1, 1841, 128;  Note on the larva of Cis boleti Newman, Zool. 1, 1843, 116; Notes on species of Haltica, Zool. 4, 1846, 1239; Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon Insects, Ann.Mag. Nat. Hist., 2, 1858, 202-209, 280-286; 3, 1859, 50-56, 258-265; 4, 1859, 217-224, 370-376; 6, 1860, 357-360; Leistus montanus, Ent. Weeekly Intelligencer, 6, 1859, 190; List of Coileoptera collected by J.K.Lord., Esq., in Egypt, Arabia and the near African shore of the Red Sea. With characters of undescribed species, 1871, 1-19, E.W.Janson. Many other generalised publications may also include notes on Coleoptera.

Of the Coleoptera publications (440 new species described) those devoted to the beetles of Ceylon were the most important. But they came in for great criticism (as did so many of his other new species) from H.W.Bates in particular: 'The diagnoses attached to the names are no better than a haphazard collection of the words so far as their use is concerned in the determining the species, and their references in so many cases to well-known genera is generally ridiculously wrong and pure guesswork. Under these circumstances I consider Walker's names as entitled to no more auhority than those of a catalogue' (On the Geodephagous Coleoptera collected by Gorge Lewis in Ceylon, Ann . Mag. Nat. Hist. 5(17), 199-214.) Evenhuis (see below) lists three sources of information about types in adfdition to the Bates' papers already listed: Olliff, A.S. Notes on certain Ceylonese Coleoptera (Clavicornia) described by the late Mr Franis Walker, Proc. Linn. Soc. of New Souith Wales, 10, 1886, 69-72; Blair, K.G., Types of Heteromera described by F. Walker now in the British Museum, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1921, 268-283; and Thomas, D.B., Smith, A.D., Triplehorn, C.A. & Aalbu, R.A., Walker's Eleodes, Zootaxa, 3835 (4), 2014, 583-592.

All of the above is taken from  N.L. Evenhuis, The Life and Work of Francis Walker 1809-1874, in Fly Times (Supplement 2), 27 September 2018, 1-100. I am grateful to Max Barclay for bringing this publication to my attention. (MD 12/20)