Biographical dictionary

The following was written in 1995 before the Biographical Dictionary moved from hard copy onto the web. 

'Born at Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester and educated at Hyde Grammar School. Lived at Dunkinfield in nearby Cheshire until his marriage in 1969. He moved in 1971 to Glossop, Derbyshire, where he still lives with wife Clare and two sons (Phil, 25 and Andrew, 23).

Started collecting Lepidoptera originally, together with other encountered insects during the late 1950s. Became aware of the firm of Flatters and Garnett Ltd in Manchester through the encouragement of Alan Palmer, his biology master, and visited their entomological laboratory in Fallowfield where he met Alex de Porochin, Peter Skidmore, Brian Cooke and Mary Black.  The two first encouraged him for many years and it was through them that he joined the Manchester Entomological Society in the 1950s.

In 1957/8 he attended lectures at the University by W.D.Hincks and others, and subsequently met Alan Brindle, George Kloet and Ted Fielding who also encouraged him, together with the Bristol Lepidopterist Norman Watkins through whom he joined the South London Entomological and Natural History Society. Other northern societies he joined at this time were the North West Naturalists Union, the Oldham Natural History Society, the Lancashire and Cheshire Fauna Society and the Raven Entomological and Natural History Society.

By 1959 Johnson had started to specialise in Coleoptera and this led to his first job as junior technician to Alan Brindle, Keeper of Entomology at the Manchester Museum, in October 1961. In 1972 he was appointed to the new post of Assistant Keeper, and in 1982, when Brindle retired, he became Keeper, the post which he still holds. He carried out field work throughout this period concentrating on the Northwest, with longer trips further afield (overseas from 1965). In these he was joined by other coleopterists including members of the South London, Peter Skidmore (until he moved to Doncaster in 1965) and Stan Bowestead who acted as their driver. John Daniel and Charles Griffith were the other Raven Coleopterists he met at this time.

In his obituary of Edward Wrigley Aubrook in EMM., 127, 1991, 91-93, Johnson wrote: 'My first meeting with Ted was in 1963 when he invited me over to Huddersfield for a day in the field. As a youngster of 20, I remember being amazed when, instead of getting out a sheet on which to spread moss and dead leaves for examination, Ted produced a white plastic tray and quarter-inch metal sieve and proceeded to show me how to find real beetles like pselaphids...Over the years we enjoyed more than fifty happy days in the field including longer trips to East Anglia and Scotland.' This was the start of Johnson's passion for many of the smaller species particularly Ptiliidae, Cryptophagidae and Latridiidae which he now studies on a world basis and which has led to his being asked to visit and curate collections in the Museums of Geneva (1976-1993 six visits), Paris (1980), Lund and Copenhagen (1983), Lyon (1985) and Basel (1985).

Johnson's publications include descriptions and figures of sixty five species added to the British list, starting with Rhizophagus parvulus in 1963, in various British and other publications (23 Ptiliidae, 10 Cryptophagidae, 7 Staphylinidae, 4 Nitidulidae, 3 Clambidae, 3 Latriidae, 2 Pselaphidae, 2 Byrrhidae, 2 Elodidae, 2 Curculionidae and a number of families with a single species). Eight species of which two are now synonyms, were also described by him together with the generic name Cortinicara. Three hundred species of Coleoptera have been described from all parts of the world including 152 Ptiliidae, 101 Latriidae, 34 Cryptophagidae, 5 Anobiidae, 4 Scarabaeidae, 2 Staphylinidae, 1 Byrrhidae and 1 Tenebrionidae. 13 new generic names for exotic Ptiliidae have also been published. Chief amongst his 189 publications are 'The Fennoscandian, Danish and British species of the genus Ernobius Thomson', Opusc. ent., 31, 1966, 81-92; 'The British species of the genus Byrrhus including B.arietinus Steff. new to the British list', EMM., 101, 1966, 111-115; Coleoptera: Clambidae, RES. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, iv,6a, 1966; 'The genus Acrotrichis Mots. in the Ethiopian Region' (studies on Ethiopian Ptiliidae No.2), Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 79, 1969, 213-260; 'The Atomaria species of Madeira and the Canary Islands including data on the Wollaston Collections and Lectotype designations for his species', Ent. Scand., 1, 1970, 145-160; 'Atomariinae from the northwestern parts of the India subªcontinent, with descriptions of seven new species', EMM.,107, 1970, 224-232; 'A review of the Palearctic species of the genus Ernobius Thoms.', Entom. Blatter, 71, 1975, 65-93; 'Notes on Byrrhidae with special reference to, and a species new to, the British fauna', Ent. Rec. J. var., 90, 1978, 141-147; 'An introduction to the Ptiliidae of New Zealand', 9. 1982, 333-376, 'Aphodius analis and its allies in the subgenus Teuchestes with descriptions of two new species', Revue suisse Zool., 90, 1983, 519-532 (Joint paper with G. Dellacasa); 'Revision of the Ptiliidae occurring in the Mascarenes, Seychelles and neighbouring Islands', Ent Basiliensia, 10, 1985, 159-237; 'A revised check list of the British Acrotrichis', Ent Gazette, 38, 1987, 229-242; 'Revision of Sri Lankan Acrotrichines', Revue suisse Zool., 95, 1988, 257-275; 'The feather winged beetles of Yorkshire', Naturalist, 115, 1990, 57-71; 'Cryptophagidae. In Lohse, G.A. and Lucht, W.H. Die Kafer Mitteleuropas, 13 (supplement 2), 1992, 114-134; and Provisional Atlas of the Cryptophagidae: Atomariinae of Britain and Ireland, 1993, 1-91.

All material which Johnson has collected both in Britain and abroad is routinely added to the collections of the Manchester Museum.

Several beetles have been named johnsoni after him including the scarab Aphodius johnsoni Baraud, which he found in 1972 in Dalmatia and Montenegro.

Besides being a member of the societies listed above Johnson is also a FRES (since 1962) and has attended the Verrall Association annual supper since 1961.

There is an account of him in Raven ent. nat. hist. soc. Fifty Years, 1946-1996, 165-167, and of his work in the Manchester Museum in ibid., 206-207, both written by himself.'

My own association with Colin began in March 1979 when I first visited Manchester in connection with preparing entries for this Dictionary, and was followed a few years later by a second to discuss my growing interest in Ptiliidae. Colin was very helpful and supportive, and suggested that it would be a good idea if I started by studying one genus in particular and he had 12,000 Smicrus just received from Al Newton and Margaret Thayer which they had collected in Chile.  This was an exciting prospect and I felt honored he was prepared to trust me with it. Several years then ensued when much correspondence passed between us and a ms was produced describing 11 species nine of which were new, Colin writing the species descriptions and me providing all the ancillary information and the illustrations (with his limited equipment Colin always found making illustrations an onerous task). But for various reasons including Colin's poor health this was not published until I resurrected it in 2011, with Colin's approval, as 'A Review of Chilean Smicrus with nine new species', EMM, 147, 2011, 133-154. 

Further papers published by myself often required Colin's support, which was always forthcoming, until his health deteriorated to such an extent that he was unable to continue. Particular problems centred on specimens to which he had attached names and holotype labels but not published them. In particular a large collection of Acrotrichis from Madagsacar  made by H. Franz in 1969 and P. Hammond in 1970 in which he had determined seventeen new species and made notes and drawings to which he gave me access.  His work on this material followed the papers he had earlier written on the African species in 1969 and 1984. Following agreement with himself and family it was possible to retain all but one of the names (including A. clareae, which I was able to place alongside my own A. colini) although I had to be listed as the author. A similar example to this involved a number of Cissidium species in the Manchester collection, some borrowed from Chicago, and including ten which he had described in an unpublished third paper on the Solomon Islands. By this time his illness had brought a permanent curtailment to his entomological activities but with the help and approval of his family I was able to include almost all his names in my revision of the genus in 2020.

The Manchester Museum houses 18 boxes of his correspondence and other material amounting to more than 2,100 items.

There is a photograph in the first of the two autobiographies listed above. (MD 1/22) 

Published Battersea Park as a Centre for Nature-Study, 1910, under the direction of the Battersea and Wandsworth Educational Council, which includes a list of beetles (57-58) most observed by himself.  He was FGS. (MD 1/07, 1/22)