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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DICKSON | Mentioned by Marsham (1802) p.388 as the owner of Elater pectinicornis L. (MD 6/02) | ||
| DICKSON, Matthew | Gave more than 100 Coleoptera from Formosa to the NHM in 1878 (78.20 and 78.24). Lived at Dunbeth Lodge, Coatbridge. (MD 6/02) | ||
| DIGBY, Bassett | Gave 8 Coleoptera which he had collected in Kirensk, N.E.Siberia, and 246 Coleoptera and other insects which he had collected in Finland and Esthonia in July 1920, to the NHM (1915.349 and 1920.412). (MD 6/02) | ||
| DIGBY, Henry Somerville | Listed in Ent. Ann., 1860, as being interested in the ‘Coleoptera of the whole world’. His address is given as Trinity Hall, Cambridge. (MD 6/02) | ||
| DIGGLES, Silvester | 24 January 1817 - 21 March 1880 | Born in Liverpool. Emigrated to Australia in 1853 and after residing for one year in Sydney moved to Brisbane with his family. Best known as an ornithologist and as a draughtsman, but he collected insects too. The Cetoniid Dysectoda digglesi was named after him by Janson. Diggles’s collection of Lepidoptera is in the South Australian Museum atAdelaide. 215 Coleoptera collected by Diggles in Australia were purchased by the NHM from Stevens in 1857 (57.130). There is an account with bibliography in A. Musgrave (1932) pp.64-65. A longer and more recent biography with portrait and bibliography, which I have not seen, was published by E.N.Marks in Queensland Naturalist, 17, 1963, pp.15-25. (MD 6/02) | |
| DILLON, Hon. R.E. | Thanked by Johnson and Halbert (1902) p.542 for help. (MD 6/02) | ||
| DILLWYN, Lewis Weston | 1778 - 31 August 1855 | Born at Ipswich the son of William Dillwyn of Higham Lodge, Walthamstow. Received his early education at a Friends' school at Tottenham. It was here that he met Joseph Woods who was to remain his life-long friend and who accompanied him to Folkestone after leaving school in an attempt to improve his poor health. In 1798 he moved to Dover where he began the botanical studies which were to occupy an important part of his life and which formed the bulk of his publications. In 1802 his father purchased the Cambrian Pottery at Swansea and in the following year Lewis moved there to take charge of it. His botanical studies, and subsequently his studies of shells and insects, were put to good use in the decoration of the porcelain made at the works until 1814 when the production turned to more utilitarian earthenwares. It was while living at Swansea that he produced the work for which he is well known to Coleopterists, the Memoranda relating to Coleopterous Insects found in the neighbourhood of Swansea, 1829. Dillwyn became the Member of Parliament for Glamorganshire in 1832 following periods as a magistrate and as High Sheriff of the county. The Freedom of the Borough of Swansea was presented to him in 1834, and from 1835-1840 he served as Alderman and Mayor. He gave up parliamentary duties in 1837. His work on the Fauna and Flora of the Swansea District, 1848, was produced as a result of his appointment as Vice President of the British Association meeting held in the town in the same year. Shortly after this his health began to fail and he withdrew from outside pursuits. He died at Sketty Hall leaving two sons and two daughters. Dillwyn outlined the extent of his involvement with Coleoptera in the preface to the Memoranda as follows: ‘Without ever having made Entomology a principal study, it was my amusement for several years, when walking in the neighbourhood, to collect Coleopterous Insects, and to make Memoranda of the situations in which they are usually found, and of any circumstance relating to their habits or specific characters that appeared to be worth notice... Anything like a perfect Catalogue I am, however, unable to attempt, for, when these Notes were chiefly made, there were numerous species for which it was impossible to find a name...’ In describing his interest in beetles as merely an 'amusement' Dillwyn seems to have been characteristically depreciatory about his efforts. Apart from its importance as one of the first British local lists of Coleoptera, the Memoranda , which he printed and published privately, runs to 75 pages of detailed information and shows a good knowledge of the contemporary British literature. Dillwyn refers to specimens sent to him by Kirby in February 1805 (p.71) so that his interest must have extended for at least 25 years. Furthermore, he states that he asked William Leach to name 97 species for him in 1819 and that Leach had informed him ‘that forty nine had never been described in any British or Foreign publication, and that twenty were were not to be found either in his own extensive Cabinet or at the British Museum’. In arranging his notes for publication Dillwyn acknowledges the help of his friend J.G.Jeffrys who also ‘added many species’. There is an obituary in Proc.LSL., 1856, p.36, and an account of his life and work in DNB. (MD 6/02) | |
| DINNAGE, Harry | 1876 - 2 October 1955 | Born in Horsham and lived there for the greater part of his life. A cabinet maker by profession, he served in the Boer War and in the Navy during the First World War, and was also employed as an estate gardener. In his obituary of Dinnage in EMM., 91, 1955, p.292, A.A.Allen records that his first interest in entomology was the Lepidoptera but that this gave way to the Coleoptera around 1925 under the influence of his friend Dr Padwick who lived in Horsham and knew Norman Joy. Allen, who exchanged specimens with Dinnage, further records that 'He amassed a considerable representative collection of British beetles, largely local captures for he had few chances to collect much outside his own area... near the end of his life he was engaged in compiling a list of his captures in the Horsham district, which he looked forward to seeing in print... His outstanding discovery, by which British Coleopterists will remember him, was that of the Australian fern-weevil Syagrionus intrudens Wat. breeding at large in private grounds near Horsham.’ Dinnage published six notes in the EMM. after 1945, when he lived at Guildford, detailing his captures in Surrey and Sussex. A further note (91, 1955, p.ii) written shortly before his death, records his intention to sell his Coleoptera books including a small paper copy of Fowler. His collections were housed in cabinets of his own making. K.C.Lewis there are Dinnage specimens in his collection. FRES from 1929; member of the British Empire Naturalist's Association (mid-southern branch. He gave slide lectures and acted as referee in Coleoptera); and phenological observer for the Royal Meterological Society. There is another obituary in Proc.RESL, 20, 1955-56 (C), pp. 74-75. (MD 6/02, 12/06) | |
| DINNING, M. | Gave 400 British Coleoptera to the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 7 April 1884 (Davis and Brewer (1986)). (MD 6/02) | ||
| DISTANT, G.L. | Gave one specimen of Catoxantha castelnaudi to the NHM in 1870 (70.25) and another of Monochammus sp. in 1873 (73.30). Both specimens were from Penang. (MD 6/02) |