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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| COULTER | Dawson (1854) p.39 mentions that Carabus auratus L. 'has also been found at Lough Bray in Ireland by Mr Coulter'. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COVENTRY, George A. (the younger) | Murray (1853), p.vii, lists Coventry with John Syme, Professor Fleming and himself as having 'worked out Fife, Perth, Kinross and Clackmanan' for beetles. Murray also refers on several occasions to Coventry's collection. He lived at Shanwell. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COVINGTON, Symes | Collected with Darwin as his servant, companion and ‘emanuensis’. See Fergusson, B.J., Syms Covington of Pambula, assistant to Charles Darwin on the voyage of the H.M.S.Beagle 1831-1836, 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. Merimbula (Australia), 1988. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COWLEY, John | 1909 - June 1967 | Born and died in Sussex but travelled extensively. He was of independent means. Primarily interested in Odonata and, later in life, Diptera, and his collections were given to the NHM. He collected beetles too, however, and there are specimens bearing his name in the Kauffmann collection of Cerambycidae at Manchester, and in Colin Johnson's collection of British weevils at the same institution. Harvey et al (1996) p.53 list manuscript material in the NHM. Duff 1993, p.6 notices that Cowley ‘was active in the Mid-Somerset Naturalist’s Society, as well as for some time Secretary of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Entomological Section. Although born in Sussex, he moved to Edington in 1943 and then collected fairly widely in Somerset up until his death, although nearly all of his beetles were identified by [W.A.] Wilson and some of his specimens were probably incorporated into the latter’s collection. At least part of Cowley’s collection is said to be in the NHM (A.J.Parsons, pers. comm.). Cowley also provided Wilson with the results of an extensive search of the entomological literature for Somerset references. His beetle records are taken from Wilson’s card index in the Taunton County Museum. A brief obituary is in Proc.Som.Arch.Nat.Hist.Soc.’ Pedersen (2002) p.121 lists correspondence with C.J.Wainwright, 1945, in the RESL. (MD ?, 11/09) This is presumably the J.Cowley who compiled, the Directory of Amateur Entomologists, 1947, for the AES. FRES from 1931. There is a brief obituary in Proc.RESL., C, 32, 1967-68, p.59. (MD 4/02) |
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| COWPER, Richard | Published 'An Australian beetle near London' in EMM., 10, 1873, p.83. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COX, A. Desmond L. | Published a number of articles on Coleoptera in the early 1950s including 'Coleoptera from the Colchester district', EMM., 86, 1950, p.142; 'The pupation of Cionus scrophulariae L.', ibid., 87, 1951, p.271; and 'Attempts to breed Chrysolina menthastri Suff.', ibid., 88, 1952, p.94. He lived at this time at Edale, Ipswich Road, Colchester, Essex and was interested in Lepidoptera too, on which he also published notes. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COX, Charles James | A Captain who lived in Canterbury. He published a number of articles on Scolytus destructor Oliv. between 1848 and 1859. He must have been one of the first entomologists to take up the photography of insects publishing 'Notes on the application of photography to insects' in Proc.ESL., 1863, pp.179-181. He also published a popular work Our Common Insects First Steps to Entomology, 1864. Cox was also interested in Lepidoptera, publishing notes on larvae, including one with J.O.Westwood in 1864. Harvey et al.(1996) p.54 record that several manuscript chapters for an unpublished work titled Elementary Lectures upon Natural History, including several pen-and-ink drawings, are in the NHM. (MD 4/02) | ||
| COX, Hon. Herbert Edward | d. December 1914 | Surprisingly little is known of Cox considering that his two volume A Handbook of the Coleoptera or Beetles of Great Britain and Ireland, 1874, was one of the most important publications on the British fauna to appear in the 19th century, and the first to use dichotomous keys for species identification which had earlier been used on the Continent (although Mackechnie Jarvis (1976) notes a key to Catops by Murray of 1856 on the dichotomous principle). Cox is recorded as living in London until, in 1894, he was domiciled to Jamaica to take up the position in local government which earned him his Honourable title. It is extraordinary given the competence of the Handbook that no reviews are known and that he published nothing else on Coleoptera. Smith (1986) p.110 records that his collection, including the British material on which his Handbook was based, was given to the HDO by his widow in 1915 and 1922, and include a special collection of Heteromera (some specimens from W.W.Saunders) kept separately. Many volumes from his library are also in the HDO. I have seen a beetle in the Pusa Institute at Delhi bearing the label 'H.E.Cox. Hispa.Behar. 14.IX.14'. (MD 4/02) | |
| COX, L.G. | d. 1965? | Published 'Obrium brunneum (Fab.) new to the British List' with P.Harwood, in EMM., 72, 1936, p.149. I have seen specimens collected by him in the E.C.Bedwell collection at the Castle Museum, Norwich, and in the general collection at Doncaster Museum (dated 1919). Hancock and Pettit (1981) record that Britten's collection at Manchester includes Cox specimens. Mackechnie Jarvis, (1976) p.109, notes that Cox's main collection was acquired by L.Christie. I assume that this is the same Cox who is recorded in the Insect Department Register at Cambridge as giving G.W.Nicholson's collection of Coleoptera, including notebooks, to the Museum on 11 July 1957. Peter Hodge published a note on the Beetles-British Isles web site (21 November 2003) concerning some photocopies from a diary sent to him by Jonathan Cooter in the early 1980s which he believed may have belonged to Cox. The entries concerned collections of beetles at Bexhill-on-Sea in 1967/68, Glasgow University grounds in 1967 and at Bangor on 19 October 1968, but it was subsequently suggested by John Bratton after a comparison of the Bangor material with Joan Morgan’s records, that these referred to G.J.Jackson. I assume that this is the same Cox who is recorded in the Insect Department Register at Cambridge as giving G.W.Nicholson's collection of Coleoptera, including notebooks, to the Museum on 11 July 1957. (MD 4/02, 1/07) | |
| COX, Mrs E. | Smith (1986) records that there is a collection of flies and beetles from Tasmania in the HDO accompanied by a letter to Poulton of 1896. (MD 4/02) |