Biographical dictionary

Information about Donisthorpe is surprisingly thin considering that he lived to the age of eighty and for much of his life was one of our foremost Coleopterists. One might have thought that the strength of character hinted at by contemporaries; his 'kinks', about which I have heard and seen various references; and the controversy which surrounded some of his new species, would have ensured a fuller record, but this is not the case.

He was educated at Mill Hill House, Leicester and Oackham Grammar School before going to Heidelberg University to study medicine. His 'too sensitive nature' forced him to give up this career however, and, being possessed of a private income, from about 1890 he devoted his life to the study of beetles and ants.

Frank Bouskell, who described Donisthorpe as 'his oldest friend' wrote in ERJV., 63, 1951, p.228: ‘He did his early collecting with me at Bradgate Park, Bardon Hill and Budon Wood where he was first interested in ants and their hosts. About this time I first introduced him to Mr F. Bates, brother of Bates of the Amazons, who later gave him his almost complete collection of Coleoptera. [On this statement see Bates, F.]. Later on we went to Wicken Fen, the New Forest, Isle of Wight, etc... I should [also] mention our joint trip to South Kerry’. Probably the best known of his collecting grounds was Windsor where he had permission to collect extensively and where so many of his important discoveries were made.

Donisthorpe published some 800 books and articles from 1890 when his first note, on Creophilus maxillosus v. ciliaris Steph. appeared in the EMM. The majority were on beetles and ants. His first article on myrmecophilous Coleoptera specifically appeared in 1896. The most important of his publications are: Catalogue of British Coleoptera, 1904, compiled with T. Hudson Beare; ‘The Coleoptera of the Isle of Wight’ in Leics. Lit. phil. Soc., 10, 1906, pp.3-23; the supplementary sixth volume which he compiled with W. W. Fowler to the latter's Coleoptera of the British Isles, 1913; chapter on entomology in Grant Duff, Life and Work of Lord Avebury, 1924; British Ants their Life-History and Classification, 1915, second edition 1927; Guests of British Ants, 1927; An Annotated List of the Additions to the British Coleopterous Fauna, 1931; and A Preliminary List of the Coleoptera of Windsor Forest, 1939, dedicated to the memory of Florence Jane Kirk, for long his constant companion on collecting trips.

Donisthorpe showed no reluctance to determine specimens both as new to Britain and new to science. Some of his contemporaries considered that he was overly enthusiastic in this respect. K.G.Blair in his obituary in EMM., 87, 1951, p.215, wrote: ‘While there is no doubt that 'Donnie' as he was known to his friends, had an unusually keen eye for a new species, about 30 having been described by him on the British list, not to mention numerous new varieties of already known species and known continental species first discovered in Britain by him, his zeal sometimes led him into indiscretion and some few of his new species will have to be abandoned as insufficiently distinct...’

Blair's concern has been born out by modern research so that today only six of Donisthorpe's new species remain in our list: Cercyon aguatilis, 1932; Leptacinus intermedius, 1936; Ilyobates bennetti, 1914; Micrambe aubrooki, 1939; Gymnetron lloydi, 1929; and Xyleborus sampsoni, 1940. The suppression of 24 of Donisthorpe's species is unfortunate if for no other reason than that 12 of them commemorated other well known Coleopterists including Miss Kirk.

One of Donisthorpe's foibles was that he would not permit specimens collected by others in his collection. R.W.Lloyd wrote to the EMM., 87, 1951, p.215 about this as follows: ‘Mr Donisthorpe was a very fine Coleopterist, but he had that curious 'kink' shared by one or two other people, that he would only put in his collection beetles he had taken with his own hands. Luckily for him he was a man of leisure and he was able to go about the country when he heard of any rare beetles being taken. It led, however, to some curious results, as on a celebrated occasion when a collector in the New Forest got a very rare beetle - Velleius I believe it was- and advised Mr Donisthorpe, who telegraphed him to put a tumbler over it on the ground and keep it there until he was able to go and collect it himself.’

Donisthorpe's work on ants, which led to his becoming an unofficial member of staff of the NHM where he studied foreign species in particular, involved him in setting up elaborate breeding cages. In these he was not only able to study the relationship of ants and beetles, which led to many important discoveries, but the cages were also used by Chapman and Frohawk to work out the life cycle of the large blue butterfly Maculinea arion L..

He made more than one hundred gifts of insects to the NHM between 1889, when he presented 400 beetles collected in Germany, and his death. Several of these gifts were of material collected by other Coleopterists and several included larvae, etc.. His main British collection of Coleoptera amounting to 22,084 specimens was presented in 1934 (1934.4). It was originally preserved in a 40 drawer cabinet but has now been amalgamated into the general collection. The collection included more than 100 types. This gift also included a spirit collection of larvae, etc., microscope preparations, books, and 63 volumes of separates.

He also made numerous gifts to the HDO between 1899 and 1924, and in 1927 a Windsor collection to which he continued to add specimens until 1943. In connection with this collection K.G.Blair noted: 'after the completion of his own series of six the next specimen was always reserved for the Hope Department’. This collection is maintained separately.

The Hope Department also houses Donisthorpe's MS Windsor notes in 4 volumes; annotated copies of his and Beare's 1904 Catalogue, and Beare's A Catalogue of the Recorded Coleoptera of the British Isles, 1930; an interleaved copy of his Windsor Preliminary List, 1939; and a copy of the photograph in the front of the same publication in a carved oak frame.

Smith (1986) p.115 also records that Donisthorpe sold his collection of ants and associated insects to the HDO in 1927 for £IOO but that he retained it temporarily and eventually resold it to the NHM in 1933 refunding all costs incurred to the HDO.

I have also seen beetles collected by Donisthorpe at Manchester in the general collection, in the Kauffmnn collection of Cerambycidae and in Colin Johnson's collection of weevils, and in the RSM in the May collection. The Manchester Museum also has some MS and other material relating to Donisthorpe including a small notebook of 87 pages with an index of species and lists of localities, the first page being stamped ‘Bibliotheca H. Donisthorpe’, and a volume listing the people to whom he sent reprints after 1932.

The main collection of Donisthorpe’s MS material is in the NHM and includes: five volumes titled Journal of British Coleoptera captured by H. Donisthorpe, being A list of the British Coleoptera taken by me and in my collection with dates, localities and notes on how captured, arranged in the form of a journal, 1879-1883, 1902-1914, 1915-1930, 1930-1938, 1938-1940; a notebook listing the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera duplicates including the names of people to whom specimens were given; a notebook listing the Coleoptera of Cambridgeshire; an annotated copy of Catalogue of British Coleoptera, 1904; and a correspondence collection of 200 items covering the period from 1900-1948 which includes letters from A.A.Allen, T.H.Beare, and J.H.Keys. (For full list see Harvey et al (1996), pp.61-62.

Apart from the notices mentioned above Gilbert (1977) p.95, lists: Ent.Ber., Amst., 13, 1951, p.317 (by P. Van de Wiel); Proc.RESL., C, 16, 1952, p.84 (by N. D. Riley) and J.Soc.Brit.Ent., 4, 1951, 23-24 (by R.B.Benson).

Donisthorpe was a member of the editorial panel of the ERJV from 1897; FRES from 1891 (Vice President 1911, Council on three occasions, Special Life Fellow); a Corresponding Member of the Dutch Entomological Society from 1931; and a member of the Entomological Club of which he became senior member and Secretary. A photograph of him with Florence Kirk and members of the Crown Estate Office at Windsor, taken from the original at Oxford, is included in his Windsor list. (MD 6/02)

Little is known of Donovan's early life. He appears to have inherited a considerable fortune and to have become interested in natural history in his teens. After 1800 he made several journeys through Monmouthshire and S. Wales of which he published a very useful account in 1805 illustrated with his own drawings. By 1807 his collections of natural history objects on which he had spent many thousands of pounds were such that he was able to open them to the public as the London Museum and Institution of Natural History. This institution remained open for many years and catalogues exist.

It is for his publications, however, that Donavan is now best known. Between 1799 and 1820 he published 23 volumes of British birds, fishes, quadrupeds and shells, and 13 volumes of insects. The latter comprised The Natural History of British Insects, from 1793, in ten volumes, and General Illustrations of Entomology, 1798-1805, in three volumes. The last, which was dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks and includes some of Donovan's finest plates, is perhaps his best known work. It is subtitled Part 1. An Epitome of the Insects of Asia, elucidated in one hundred and fifty plates; with occasional observations, and descriptions after the Linnaean and Fabrician manner which suggests that the he orginally intended to produce further parts. The first volume includes the insects of China, the second those of India, and the third those of New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite, and other islands in the Indian, Southern and Pacfic Oceans. J.O.Westwood subsequently edited and brought the work up to date as the Natural History of the Insects of China..., in 1842.

Instructions for Collecting and Preserving Objects of Natural History, which Donovan first published in 1794, included A Treatise on the Management of Insects in their Several states, and appeared again as a second edition in 1805 with a new title page and reprinted Preface . The Natural History of British Insects; explaining them in their several states, with periods of their transformations... Together with the history of such minute insects, as require investigation by the microscope. The whole illustrated by coloured figures ... is the most important of his books on the British Coleopterous fauna. The work which had a complicated publishing history was begun in 1792. The first volume was re-issued several times and the second volume once, which suggests that the demand for copies grew rapidly. It was not finally finished until 1813.

Donovan’s publishing activities exhausted his funds and in 1833 he published a piteous memorial To the patrons of science, literature and the fine arts respecting his losses at the hands of publishers and booksellers who, he claimed, not only retained most of his literary property, estimated at £60-70,000, but had also delayed paying him by as long as six years. In this work he states that he started publishing in 1783 and during the course of fifty years a complete set of his works would cost £100. Not all Donovan's books were received favourably. Swainson, for example, criticised his text as being ‘verbose and not above mediocrity’ and his plates as being ‘gaudy and the drawings generally unnatural’. These remarks, however, appear to apply more to his animal and bird books than to those on insects.

Donovan knew Dru Drury and prepared the sale catalogue of his collection from 4 notebooks which are now in the HDO. Smith (1986), p.75, notes that these were given to Donovan as he declined payment for his work. Many of Drury's insects passed on his death to Donovan. The HDO also houses a considerable amount of other material relating to Donovan including letters, drawings, prints, and dissected copies of his own publications. Included in this collection Smith lists a MS: ‘Coleopterous insects named in Marsham's cabinet - now in my possession’.

Donovan's collection of Coleoptera was presumably included in the sale of his London Museum and Institute of Natural History which Chalmers-Hunt (1976) notes was sold by King and Lochee between April 30 and May 2, 4-8, 1818 in 878 lots; certainly the sale catalogue mentions insects. Interestingly the sale took place at the same time as Bullock sold the contents of his London Museum of Natural History. Many of the type specimens were acquired by J. Francillon and subsequently passed to the NHM. Some idea of the price which Donovan himself was prepared to pay for specimens can be gathered from the fact that Chalmers-Hunt (1976) notes that he expended £3 3s on a single specimen of Cetonia hamata at the sale of the Leverian museum in 1806. (MD 6/02)