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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEYLAND, Mr | Mr Leyland of Halifax is mentioned in the Literary Gazette, 111 March 1827 as giving Coleoptera to E.T.Bennett. This is presumably the same Leyland who is mentioned by Stephens (1828), 1, p.18. (MD 11/03) | ||
| LIFTON, Edgar W. | Lived in Gloucester and compiled 'The first list of the Coleoptera of Glos.' for the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club in 1940 containing 1055 species. Atty (1983, v) notes that his main contributors were named as Morse, Lifton, Watkins, Davis, Rev. C.J.Nash, Rev. G.M.Smith, Edwards, C.G.Clutterbuck and C. Nicholson and that 'the great bulk of this manuscript is based on Davis's captures, along with the enigmatic Morse records. Unfortunately Davis' records have been mangled: omissions are rife - only 6 of Davis' 17 Quedius species appear - especially in the Carabidae and Staphylinidae but all through the list; records of individual species are selected at random and Davis' own summaries ("not uncommon: Kings Stanley 1915, Chalford 1917") are often misinterpreted as additional records, an error compounded by failure to understand Davis' locality code...' and Atty continues with many further criticisms finally concluding that the only records of Lifton's he felt able to use were the suspect Morse records. (MD 8/17) |
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| LIGHTON, Thomas | Published a ‘Note on the Bombardier Beetle’ in Zool., 2, 1844, p.413. Was also interested in Lepidoptera. (MD 11/03) | ||
| LILLEY | There are beetles from Scotland bearing this name in the D.G.Hall collection at Oldham. (Information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 11/03) | ||
| LINNELL, John jun. | d. May 1906 | Son of the well-known artist of the same name. A brief obituary by Edward Saunders in EMM., 43, 1907, pp.69-70, mentions that Linnell was a ‘very active collector in the neighbourhood of Reigate and Redhill. The writer... has often accompanied him on excursions in search of Coleoptera, and especially of the species which occur in sandpits, in which the locality is rich.’ Linnell’s interest led to his publishing a list of Carabidae in the Holmesdale Natural History Society’s Natural History of Reigate and its Vicinity, 1861 (15pp) to which he added a list of Staphylinidae in 1899. Saunders commented about this ‘The carefulness of his work delayed the publication considerably, but the result is most complete and reliable’. Linnell’s collections passed to his nephew A.H.Palmer of Carn Towan, Sennen, Cornwall and it is presumably these that Chalmers Hunt (1976) p.149 records were sold on 5-6 October 1909 at Stevens’ auction rooms. The sale catalogue mentions that ms diaries were included. (MD 11/03) | |
| LITTLE, William | d. 17 November 1867 | A Reverend who lived in Kirkpatrick, Scotland. Published ‘Localities of Scottish Coleoptera’ in Mag.Zool.Bot., 2, 1838, pp.232-237. There is an obituary by Edward Newman in Ent., 3, 1867, p.248 which I have not seen. (MD 11/03) | |
| LIVESEY, R. | Smith (1986) p.134 records that there are South American Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, etc. collected by Livesey in the HDO which came out of a cabinet purchased at Stevens’ saleroom in 1923. (MD 11/03) | ||
| LLOYD, Robert Wylie | 17 March 1868 – 29 April 1958 | Son of John Lloyd, a bleacher at Horwich, Lancashire. His mother was a Wylie of Glasgow. After his parents separated he was brought up by his mother in Clapham. His health was poor and he had little formal education but this did not prevent him becoming a very successful and wealthy businessman particularly through the publishing firm of Nathaniel Lloyd and Co. He also achieved fame as a mountaineer after being introduced to the Alps in 1896 by G.C.Champion, his friend of some forty years. After the amputation of a leg in 1937 he continued to assist climbers through the Alpine Club, and was involved in the first successful ascent of Mount Everest In a note Lloyd appended to J.J.Walker’s obituary of Champion (who also lived in Clapham) in EMM, 63, 1927, pp.202-203, he stated that his times in the Alps were the happiest of his life. After the loss of his leg Lloyd became more involved in entomology and particularly Coleoptera ‘as beetles are no more active than I am now’. Harry Champion described his field trips as follows: ‘Driving by car to promising collecting spots, he would get his chauffeur to help him by bringing material to be spread for examination on a folding table brought for that purpose. Many of his friends who have visited him formerly at Treago Castle and latterly at Bampton Grange, will long carry a memory of this characteristic in the field, and his continued assiduity at mounting and setting his captures in his study at home. At Bampton his favourite collecting ground was Wychwood Forest...’. Another coleopterist who recorded a collecting trip with Lloyd was Raymond Uhthoff-Kaufmann. In ERJV, 96, 1984, he wrote ‘That year, too, [1949] R.W.Lloyd and I spent a day collecting in Delamere Forest, Cheshire, hunting particularly for Saperda scalaris L., of which we found many larvae, pupae and a dead imago. I remember admiring Mr Lloyd’s mobility and agility in clambering over gates and fencing, despite his artificial limb... on our drive to Delamere he handed me a small pocket store box “I brought this present for you” he said. “Walter, my chauffeur, beat a number off pine [sic] branches for me in Moccas Park ... a year or so ago”...It contained a neatly ticketed Pyrridium sanguineum L.’. In London Lloyd lived in Albany, Piccadilly. In 1904, following the death of Robert McLachlan, Lloyd acquired the EMM. In a note appended to the obituary of J.J.Walker in 75, 1939, p.70, he wrote ‘I took over the editorial management and ownership... in association first with the late G.C.Champion as chief literary editor until his death, and then for the last ten years with Commander J.J.Walker, who had always been in touch with his brother-in-law, G.C.Champion – two of my oldest friends. During all these years we worked together in the greatest harmony with a single eye to the prestige and success of the magazine.’ When a change of publisher had become necessary in 1924 his firm took over. Lloyd’s own contributions to the magazine commenced with ‘Prionus corarius and Sirex gigas in Herefordshire’ (74, 1938, p.232) and were principally confined to short notes and longer reviews of books and obituary notices, although a longer piece did confirm the presence of Syagrius intrudens here (80, 1944, p.4). Lloyd’s collections including Lepidoptera and Diptera as well as Coleoptera were bequeathed to the Manchester Museum, the beetles occupying 80 drawers. They include Staphylinidae given to him by Tottenham and other specimens from J.J.Walker, K.G.Blair, T.Edmonds, Eustace, Blatch and others, and have now been amalgamated into the general collection. The Kauffmann collection of Cerambycids in the Museum also includes specimens taken by Lloyd, as does the general collection at Doncaster Museum; the Dyson Perrins Collection at Birmingham Museum; the British collection at Oldham Museum; and he gave many small donations from British and European localities to the HDO (1901-55). Manchester gave some duplicates to Glasgow. Lloyd also left to Manchester his extensive library and provided funding for the purchase of the collection of Cassidinae formed by Spaeth of Vienna. The manuscript material in the Museum related to him includes: Coleoptera notes of collections no1 July 88 – no 3000 27 March 94; a small notebook stamped Bibliotheca H. Donisthorpe and with a tree, pps 1-87, with index of species and listing localities for some species.; marked up copy of Hudson Beare’s 1930 list; small loose leaf book listing contents of drawer 23; volume inscribed Horace Donisthorpe, 332 Great West Rd., Heston, Middx... pp.1-119 listing names and addresses of people to whom he sent reprints from 1932. Lloyd’s generosity was well known and included the fitting out of the RESL’s meeting room in 41 Queen’s Gate and the gift to the library of the Hubner and Gayer manuscripts. Hubner’s original drawings for the Sammlung Europaischer Schmetterlinge were given to the NHM where there is also correspondence dated 1932 with J.V.Pearman. With S.A.Neave he published Nomenclator Zoologicus at a very reduced price so that it would be more widely accessible, and made available supplementary volumes every ten years.FRES from 1885, Hon.FRES from 1944, Council five terms from 1900, Vice President four times. Member of the Entomological Club from 1935 and subsequently a Trustee. Apart from the notices already mentioned there is an obituary in The Times, 30 April 1958; ProcRESL 23,C,1958-59, pp.71-72 and J.Soc.Brit.Ent., 2, 1959, p.59. (MD 11/03) | |
| LOCKE, H. | Information about this Coleopterist is held by the Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre. (MD 11/03) | ||
| LOCKET, F.B. | There are specimens from Norfolk in the D.G.Hall collection at Oldham bearing this name (Information from Trevor James). (MD 11/03) |