Biographical dictionary
The Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists was compiled by the late Michael Darby. The Dictionary can be accessed below, and see also the additional information provide by Michael:
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| Name | Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| HUNTER, Frederick Arthur | 12 October 1931 - 4 May 2000 | The following is extracted from a detailed obituary by Colin Johnson and Peter Skidmore in EMM., 141, 2005, pp.125-129 which also includes a photograph (taken in Portugal in 1992) and bibliography. Born in Salford, the son of a Methodist minister. Educated in Royton, near Oldham; Manchester Grammar School and, from 1949, at Cambridge where he studied Zoology and Agriculture obtaining a BA (1953) and MA (1957). At Cambridge he was a keen badminton player and was awarded a half blue. In 1956 he married Hetty Duffy and two years later took up the post of Land Pests Officer for MAFF. Subsequently his work took him to various parts of the country and he lived in Heanor, Ilkeston, Wolverhampton, Reading and Harrogate before finally settling at Knaresborough in 1989. Johnson and Skidmore record that he and his wife were very hospitable and put them up for many weekends so that they could go out beetling together. Hunter’s favourite group were the Cerambycidae and he wrote his first paper on them whilst still at Cambridge: ’Notes on collecting Longhorns’, ERJV., 63, 1951, pp.224-25. At Cambridge he met up with David Twinn, a friend from his school days, and they did their collecting on bicycles visiting Madingley in particular, as well as travelling much further afield. At this time they frequently met with Rev C.E.Tottenham who became a friend and helped with identifications. Hunter joined the Manchester Entomological Society 1957/58 and it was there that Johnson, Skidmore and Brian Cooke first met him. ‘His talks and interest were at first on longhorn beetles and later on all other groups of wood borers or dwellers, and this found a ready response in young beetlers such as ourselves, we soon became good friends and fellow collectors.’ This friendship led to joint collecting trips in the Delamere Forest in 1960 and a trip to the Scottish Highlands in the following year. Hunter was the only driver amongst them and bolted an ancient coach seat into the back of his Morris minor van to accommodate his extra passengers. Regular visits to this locality then continued until 1973 along with trips to Wales Moccas Park, Sherwood Forest, Clumber Park, Windsor, the New Forest, Epping and other important sites. The last site they visited was Duncombe Park in June 1980 where Hunter took Ischnomera cinerascens new to Britain. He is also known to have collected with C. Henderson and H.A.B. Clements in the 1960s and 70s. In later years Hunter’s interest in botany and photographing flowers developed and he travelled extensively in Europe and Oregon in pursuit of pictures. Hunter’s collection of c.4350 specimens (strong on Cerambycids), accompanied by a MS catalogue, is in Leicester Museum. (Fenscore database, but Johnson and Skidmore give the number of specimens as about a thousand in a ten drawer cabinet). A second collection of 258 specimens was given to the Manchester Museum in 1997. The Ptiliid Ptinellodes hunteri was named after him by Johnson and Skidmore. Johnson and Skidmore list 22 notes and articles by Hunter including ‘Ecology of Pine Wood Beetles’ in R.J.H.Bunce and J.R.Jeffers, -, Proc. Aviemore Symposium, 1975, pp. 42-55. FRES (MD 5/03, 12/06). | |
| HUNTER, Samuel Kennedy Piccavor | Worked on stored product Coleoptera when he lived at Feltham in Middlesex. FRES 1951. (MD 5/03) | ||
| HUNTER, William | 13 February 1728 – 16 October 1793 | This is the well-known Dr Hunter, Court Physician to Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, and founder of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. Hunter originally intended his collections (most of which related to his work as a surgeon and not to entomology which formed only a small part) to form part of a School of Anatomy and Medicine in London but chose Glasgow University when this proposal failed to find support with the Government. Fabricius’s involvement came about during one of his various journeys around Europe pursuing entomological matters. In his Autobiography (translated from the Danish by Frederick Hope and published in Trans.ESL, iv, 1845) Fabricius mentions his indebtedness to Dr Solander at the British Museum who introduced him to Hunter and others ‘whose houses and libraries and collections were soon opened to me. I determined and described the insects and arranged the species of the collections’. After receipt at Glasgow the collections were greatly enriched by the addition of further collections eg. those of Thomas G.Bishop and James F.X.King. The Types described by Fabricius formed the subject of a paper by Richard Staig The Fabrician Types of Insects in the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University, Coleoptera Part 1, Cambridge,1931. (I am grateful to Geoff Hancock who kindly supplied me with a photocopy of part of this). Staig noted that Hunter had acquired several types of species founded by the French entomologist Antoine G.Olivier. (MD 5/03) | |
| HUTTON, Frederick Wollaston | 1836 - 27 October 1905 | Nephew of Thomas Vernon Wollaston. Hutton became a well-known New Zealand natural historian after emigrating there shortly after 1866 when he retired from the army. He was at one time Professor of Zoology at Christchurch. Among the many important works he carried out on the islands was the publication of the Index Faunae Novae Zelandiae, 1904, which listed all the insects known at that time. He is included here because he took the weevil Pentarthrum huttoni in Devonshire which Wollaston named after him. Gilbert (1977) lists six obituaries and other notices. (MD 5/03) | |
| HYAMN, Paul S. | Published with Parsons, M.S. A Review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain, UK Nature Conservation. Peterborough: JNCC, (MD 1/22) |
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| IBBETSON, Mrs D. | Gave Coleoptera which she had collected in the Punjab, probably c. 1940, to the Zoological Museum at Cambridge. Some are retained in four store boxes and others were put into the general collection in 1945. (MD 6/03) | ||
| ILLIDGE, Rowland | 1846 - 19 February 1929 | Born in London but lived most of his life in Brisbane, Australia where he died. Appears to have worked mainly on Lepidoptera but did publish notes on other insects including Coleoptera in Proc. R. Soc. Queensland, eg. 'Notes on the entomology of a tea tree swamp' (15, 1900, 1-3) and 'Miscellanea Entomologica or odd notes on the history and transformations of various insects' (15, 1900, 133-136), and other journals. Gilbert (1977) p.184 lists four obituaries and other notices. (MD 6/03) | |
| ILLINGWORTH, Stonehewer | There is a collection of c. 400 beetles (and some scorpions), in two glazed display cases, made by Illingworth in Columbia in the 1850s, in the care of the West Highland Museum, Fort William, Scotland (but not held in the Museum). (MD 6/03) | ||
| IMMS, Augustus Daniel | 1881 - 3 April 1949 | Distinquished entomologist known particularly for his work on termites and his books General Text Book of Entomology, Recent Advances in Entomology and Insect Natural History. He was born near Birmingham and educated locally before taking degrees at both Birmingham and Cambridge. After completing his education he was appointed first Professor of Biology in the University of Allahabad and later Forest Entomologist to the Indian Government. He returned to England in 1913 as Reader in Agricultural Entomology at the University of Manchester, and was later appointed Chief Entomologist at Rothamsted. In 1931 he was appointed to the new Readership in Entomology at Cambridge where he remained until his retirement in 1945. He was a member of various foreign societies and President and Vice President of the Royal Entomological Society on several occasions. Imms published odd notes on beetles throughout his life eg. 'Entomology in Merionethshire' and 'Coleoptera in 1897' (Ent., 30, 1897, pp.248-249, 271-272, 299), and 'Prionus corarius in Devon' [specimen taken in his garden near Sidmouth] (EMM., 83, 1947, p.245). Others are listed by V. Wigglesworth in Obit. not. Fellows. R. Soc. Lond., 6(18), pp.463-470, which also includes a portrait. Gimingham (1955) mentions that Imms collected beetles in Hertfordshire. There is material relating to Imms in David Sharp’s scrapbook and autograph album, and correspondence with C.J.Wainwright, in the RESL (Pedersen (2002) p.49) . Apart from the obituary mentioned above which is the fullest, Gilbert (1977) p.184 lists nine others. (MD 6/03, 11/09) | |
| INCE, Walter | A Doctor. Gave 12 coleoptera and other insects from Trinidad to the NHM in 1898 (1898/138). (MD 6/03) |