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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DISTANT, William Lucas | 12 November 1845 - 4 February 1922 | Born at Rotherhithe the son of Captain Alexander Distant ‘who in old South-Sea whaling-days, sailed round and round the world, and transmitted a love of roaming to his sons’ (dedication by William in a Naturalist in the Transvaal (1892)). It was in his father's company on one of these voyages, which set out on 5 August 1867 for the Malayan Peninsula, that Distant acquired the love of natural history, and particularly entomology, which was to dominate the rest of his life. In his early career Distant was connected with a tannery. The work involved making two extensive trips to the Transvaal, the first between 1890-1891 and the second, a few years later, for a period of four years. During both visits he made extensive collections of insects including Coleoptera. His book A Naturalist in the Transvaal, 1892, written after the first trip, includes a list of Coleoptera (with text and determinations by C.J.Gahan, M. Jacoby, H.W.Bates, G.Lewis, C.O.Waterhouse and others) occupying 23 pages (187-210). The second resulted in the publication of a much more extensive work under the title Insecta Transvaaliensia, twelve parts of which were issued between 1900-1911 as volume 1. The NHM purchased many thousands of Coleoptera and other insects collected by Distant during his two trips in ten main and several smaller instalments, before 1920. After his return Distant became increasingly involved with the Rhynchota and it is for his work on this group that he is chiefly known by entomologists. He worked exclusively on them at the NHM between 1899-1920 for two or three days each week and the group forms the subject of most his large number of publications. The Eumolpid beetle Merius distanti was named after him by Jacoby. Distant's health failed as a result of cancer and he died in a nursing home at Wanstead. Gilbert (1977) lists six obituaries and other notices. There is correspondence in the RESL with Herbert Druce and Roland Trimen (Pedersen (2002)). FRES from 1875 (Secretary 1878-80, Vice President 1881,1900); member of the Societe Entomologique de France from 1868; Director and Honorary Secretary of the Anthropological Institute 1878-1881, Editor of the Zool 1897-1914; and Member of the Societe Entomologique de Belgique. (MD 6/02, 11/09) | |
| DIXEY, Frederick Augustus | 9 December 1855 - 14 January 1955 | Well-known Lepidopterist. 41 Coleoptera which he collected with G.B.Longstaff in South Africa were given to the NHM by Longstaff in 1905 (1905.314). There are 9 obituaries and other notices listed in Gilbert (1977). (MD 6/02) | |
| DOBBIE, H.B. | Gave 497 Coleoptera which he had collected in Mashonaland and Beira to the NHM in 1903 (1903.174). (MD 6/02) | ||
| DOBBIE, J.B. | Gave 142 Indian insects (mainly Coleoptera) to the RSM in 1896 (1896-8) (Listed in the annual Register) (MD) | ||
| DOBREE, Robert B. | Bequeathed 21 Coleoptera to the NHM in 1880 (80.15). His address is recorded as 4 Queens Gate Place, London,SW. (Related to Nicholas Frank Dobree, the well-known Lepidopterist?) (MD 6/02) | ||
| DOBSON, Ronald Matthew | Dobson did his Ph.D. at the University of London on species of Psylliodes. Parts of this research were subsequently published, eg. ‘Hatching of the egg in the Cabbage stem flea beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala’ in EMM., 95, 1959, p.180, and ‘The immature stages of the flea beetles Psylliodes cuprea and P. chrysocephala’, ibid., 96, 1960, p.1. Dobson's research also showed that the third instar larva of Aleochara inconspicua Aube is a parasite of the wheat bulb fly Leptohylemyia coarctata (Fall) (ibid., 100, 1964, pp.210-211). Worked in 1948 for the Ministry of Food (Infestation Division) in Glasgow. Subsequently moved to Rothamstead where he did a considerable amount of reserach on the genus Carpophilus. This resulted in the identification and description of a number of new species from Australia and elsewhere (see EMM., 88, 1952, p.256; 91, 1955, pp.299-300; 92, 1956, pp.41-42; 95, 1959, p.156; and 105, 1969, pp.99-100). Later her returned to Glasgow as lecturer at the University in entomology and agriculturally inclined subjects from which he is now retired. His work on Coleoptera at this time included a list of the Coleoptera of the Isle of Muck and another paper on new species of Carpophilus from Australasia in Storkia, 2, 1993. Gave 7 Colydiidae and another beetle which he had taken from ships arriving at Glasgow to the NHM in 1947 (1947.82) and 1948 (1948.436). I am grateful to Geoff Hancock for information about Dobson. (MD 3/03) | ||
| DOGGETT, W.L. | Member of the Delme Radcliffe Expedition\Anglo German Boundary Commission. While on the expedition he collected 225 Coleoptera in Uganda which he gave to the NHM in 1904 (1904.23). (MD 6/02) | ||
| DOLLING, William Rodney | Well known Hemipterist who worked at the NHM 1970-1991 and wrote the book The Hemiptera, OUP, 1991. He did publish one article on beetles ‘The first record of Apion dispar Germar in Britain’ in EMM., 110, 1974, p.181, based on a specimen which he had taken at Lydden in Kent on 4 August 1967. I am grateful to Mr Dolling for writing to me about himself. (MD 3/03) | ||
| DOLLMAN, Hereward Chune | 10 March 1888 - 3 January 1919 | Educated at St. Paul's School and as a Scholar and School Exhibitioner at St. John's College, Cambridge. His interest in entomology started with the Lepidoptera when he was aged five, and over the next ten years he built up with his father and brother a very complete collection. While at St Paul's his interests turned to beetles, and specimens collected by him survived in the school collection in 1919. He continued to collect beetles while at Cambridge and after leaving, and he published a number of notes about his more interesting captures, eg. ‘Coleoptera at Ealing, 1911’ in EMM., 48, 1912, pp.12-13; and ‘Bledius fracticornis Pk. near London [Kew]’, ibid., p.13. He described Philonthus donisthorpei as new to science in 1910 (= intermedius Boisduval and Lacordaire) and Longitarsus plantagcoaritimus in 1912. On 3 January 1913 Dolling left England for Central Africa as entomologist to the Sleeping Sickness Survey of the British South Africa Company. He was stationed first at Mwenga and later at Kashitu, and it was in these districts that the greater part of his collections of African Coleoptera were made. His work in connection with the 'Tsetse' fly resulted in the discovery of a parasite, a species of Mutilla, new to science. After nearly three years in Africa he returned to England on leave and married on 23 February 1916 Norah, eldest daughter of Dr and Mrs Holloway of Bedford Park, West London. She returned with him to Africa but died at Kasenpa on 5 July 1916 after a long trek across N.W.Rhodesia. Dollman then moved to Solwezi and gave his attention to breeding Lepidoptera and making careful drawings of the larvae, but he contracted sleeping sickness himself, and knowing that he had but a short time to live, he returned to England via Cape Town in 1918. After working hard to arrange his collection of African Lepidoptera he died in the following year at the age of thirty at his residence, Hove House, Bedford Park. Dollman gave two specimens of Olophrum nicholsoni to the NHM in 1910 (1910.189) and a further six beetles from Rhodesia in 1916 (1916.95). The bulk of his collections: 40,026 specimens from Rhodesia and 7,272 from England, were presented to the same Museum at the time of his death (1919.79), and a further 27 specimens which he had collected in Rhodesia were subsequently presented by Horace Donisthorpe (1921.276). Donisthorpe also gave a series of 15 Rhodesian Staphylinidae collected by Dollman and named by M. Cameron, including paratypes, to the HDO in 1929. Five of Dollman’s collecting diaries covering the period from 1909-1912 are in the NHM where are also housed: a MS notebook: Coleopterous fauna of Ditchling, Sussex and the surrounding area, c.1912; two MS collecting notebooks: Coleopterous fauna of Sussex; three MS notebooks: Coleoptera taken personally, c. 1908-1912; one MS notebook: British Coleoptera data; one notebook: Phytophagous Coleoptera and their foodplants; and other notebooks, drawings, etc. concerning Lepidoptera (listed in Harvey et al (1996), pp.59-60) An interesting note about Dollman's collection appeared in EMM., 55, 1919, pp.135-6: ‘The Rhodesian Lepidoptera and Coleoptera are particularly valuable, and it is the first time that such an extensive series of beetles had been obtained from that part of Africa. Dr Neave, it is true, had previously made large collections of the more conspicuous Coleoptera in the same region, but the smaller forms are not to be found amongst his insects. All that can be said at the present is, that the Longicornia, Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Tenebrionidae, Buprestidae, Phytophaga, and Curculionidae are particularly well represented in the Dollman Collection, and there must be many new species amongst them, particularly in the Staphylinidae ... The Lepidoptera, it may be observed, were all taken or bred by Dollman during his second stay in N.W.Rhodesia, when he was in a very bad state of health, as a result of the Tsetse-fly attacks, the Coleoptera having been captured during the years 1913-1915, on his first sojourn in the country’. Further details are given of the Lepidoptera collections. K.C.Lewis tells me that there are Dollman specimens in his collection. Scirtes dollmani, which he collected in Rhodesia, was named after him by G.C.Champion. There is an obituary notice in EMM., 1919, pp.139-40. (MD 6/02, 12/06) | |
| DOMBRAIN, H.H | Mentioned in Johnson and Halbert (1902) pp.543 and 546. The second reference is to a note by Dombrain on the cockchafer in the third annual report of the Dublin Natural History Society, 1841. (MD 6/02) |