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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CORDER, Francis | 1833-1907 | Davis and Brewer (1986) p.45 record that Corder donated a collection of 600 Coleoptera (worldwide) to Sunderland Museum in 1898. Lepidoptera and birds’ eggs collected by him are also in the Museum. (MD 4/02) | |
| CORDER, James Watson | 1867-1953 | Davis and Brewer (1986) pp.45-46 record that Corder gave a collection of 600 Coleoptera from Brazil to Sunderland Museum on 1 March 1898. ‘The specimens were most likely amalgamated with the Earl of Durham Collection & are probably so labelled’. (MD 4/02) | |
| CORNWALLIS | Fowler (1912) mentions that Cornwallis collected Neocollyris species in the Andaman Islands. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COSTRICK | Published 'On Coleoptera or Beetles' in Report of the Eastbourne Natural History Society, 6, 1874, pp.23-25. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COTT, Hugh Bamford | 6 July 1900 - 18 April 1987 | I am grateful to Andrew Duff for pointing out the Wikipedi entry on Cott from which the following is extracted: British zoologist, an authority on both natural and military camouflage, and a scientific illustrator and photographer. Many of his field studies took place in Africa, where he was especially interested in the Nile crocodile. Cott was born in Leicestershire. In 1919, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Between 1922 and 1925, he studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge . In 1938, he earned a Doctor of Science degree at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) under the supervision of John Graham Kerr. Cott served in the British Army as a camouflage expert from 1919–1922, and, during World War II, as a camouflage instructor from 1939–1945. This work led to the publication of his classic: Adaptive Colouration in Animals (London: Methuen, 1940, with a foreword by Julian Huxley). His co-workers' first-hand accounts of his work can be found in the memoirs of two of his fellow camoufleurs: Julian Trevelyan, Indigo Days (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1957), and Roland Penrose, Scrapbook 1900–1981 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981). In the years following World War I, Cott traveled to South America, where he studied in eastern Brazil, and on the lower Amazon. He also went on research trips to the Canary Islands, and Africa, including Mozambique, Zambia and East Africa. As a zoologist, he was a lecturer at Bristol University, 1928–1932; a lecturer at Glasgow University, 1932–1938; Strickland curator and lecturer at Cambridge University, 1938–1967; and a lecturer and Fellow at Selwyn College, 1945–?. As a scientific illustrator and photographer, he also wrote three other books: Zoological Photography in Practice (1956); Uganda in Black and White (1959); and Looking at Animals: a Zoologist in Africa (1975). Cott was a founding member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. There is a box of Tenebrionidae collected by Cott in the Canary Islands in 1931 in the Museum at Cambridge. (MD 4/02, 11/09) | |
| COTTAM, Arthur | 1837 - 23 November 1911 | As a young man Cottam is recorded to have been an ardent student of botany, astronomy and microscopy. His career was spent in the Civil Service in the Office of Woods and Forests, from which he retired in 1905. He was married and had one son, who pre-deceased him, and a daughter. In January 1875 he was one of the founder members of the Watford Natural History Society, later titled the Hertfordshire Natural History Socierty, and its first Treasurer. He contributed several papers to the Transactions including 'Our British Beetles: notes on their classification and collection' (1, 1880, pp.25-36) and 'Note on the pupation of the Stag Beetle' (ibid., pp.83-84). He was also interested in Lepidoptera, his collection being sold at Stevens' auction rooms on 7 November 1911 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p.151). There is an obituary notice in Ent., 45, 1912, p.48. (MD 4/02) | |
| COTTERELL, G.S. | 1896-1977 | Worked for 45 years as an agricultural entomologist. Went to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1920 and also travelled to other countries including Nigeria and Afghanistan, as an advisor on agriculture. Harvey et. al. (1996) p.52 record that there is an unpublished manuscript: Handbook of Insect Pests of the Gold Coast with Notes on Treatment, including original drawings, in the NHM. (MD 4/02) | |
| COTTERILL, Henry | Gave 233 Coleoptera from Lake Nyassa to the RSM in 1878 (1878:46). He lived at 10 North Manor Place, Edinburgh. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COTTON, M.J. | Published with D.A.Humphries a note on 'Leptinus testaceus Mull. found on mammals' in EMM., 94, 1958, p.237, and with Colin Welch 'Records of Coleoptera from the Cairngorms', ibid., 107, 1971, p.202. Subsequently he joined Dundee University's expedition to North East Greenland and published a record of the insects found, ibid., 113, 1977, pp.213-217. He is recorded at different times at King's College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Department of Biology, Sunderland Polytechnic, and Churchtown Farm Field Studies Centre, Bodmin. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COULSON, F.J. | A.E.Gardner in James (1973) p.76 mentions that Coulson was curator of the BENHS collections for eleven years until his resignation in 1954. His main loves were Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hemiptera, ‘but he had a wide knowledge of all groups and his enthusiasm and kindness especially to beginners endeared him to all. I had special reasons to be grateful for his help and encouragement’. Published 'A few remarks upon British Rhynchophora' in Proc.Trans.SLENHS., 1935, pp.100-107; 'A study of the secondary sexual characters in British Coleoptera' and 'Remarks upon British Clavicornia', ibid., 1937, pp.54-60. His collection was acquired by A.E.Gardner and on his death passed to the NMW. Gardner incorporated some of Coulson's material but individual boxes survive. T. James tells me that there are also specimens taken by Coulson in the collection of D.G.Hall in the North Hertfordshire Museum, Baldock. (MD 4/02) |