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
FARRELL, Thomas There are Coleoptera collected by Farrell in Kent in 1883 in the C.G.Hall collection at Oldham Museum (Information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 12/02)
FARREN, William 1836 - 21 November 1887 One of the early members of the Cambridge Entomological Society who was primarily a Lepidopterist but did publish a ‘List of Coleoptera taken in the New Forest, Hants.’ in Zool., 20, 1862, pp.8141-8142. There are obituaries in EMM., 24, 1888, p.235 and Ent., 21, 1888, pp.71-72 and Chalmers-Hunt (1976) mentions that his collections were sold in 2 lots between November and December 1895, but none of these sources mentions Coleoptera. In the Ent.Ann, 1860 he is listed as ‘collecting for sale’ and perhaps that explains his involvement with beetles. (MD 12/02)
FARROW, R.A. Published ‘Omophrum limbatum (F) an addition (or restoration?) to the British list’ in EMM., 106, 1970, pp.219-221 (with E.S.Lewis) which was based on his discovery of this species at Rye Harbour while photographing the Orthopteran Tetrix ceperoi (Bol.). He had earlier taken other species of the genus on the banks of the River Niger in Mali. (MD 12/02)
FASSNIDGE, William 1888 - 19 April 1949 Well known linquist and Lepidopterist who also interested himself in other orders. These interests extended to the publication of two notes on ‘Mesosa nebulosa Fab. Ol. from Southampton’ in Trans.Hampshire Ent.Soc., 3, 1927, p.17 and 4, 1928, p.22, and one of his Lepidoptera notes refers to Saperda populnea L. making galls, ibid., 3, 1927, pp.25-29. Gilbert, P. (1977) lists five obituaries. (MD 12/02)
FELLOWS, C. Gave 280 Coleoptera and other insects in two batches to the NHM on 16 June 1843 (1843.34 and 1843.35). (MD 12/02)
FENN, Lady Ellenor 12 March 1744 - 1 November 1813 Published anonymously A short History of Insects... designed as an introduction to the study of that branch of natural history, and as a pocket companion to those who visit the Leverian Museum, Norwich, 1797, which I have not seen but which I assume includes beetles. It was one of a number of educational works which she wrote for children. She is not recorded to have written anything else on entomology. There is a portrait in Lisney, A.A. (1960) p.290. (MD 12/02)
FENNELL, James Published a number of articles on insects including two on Coleoptera: ‘The Wasp Beetle when impaled, produces an obvious noise, and in the following manner’ and ‘Localities near London in which the Glowworm has occurred, the larvae differs from the perfect insect, the eggs are luminous’, Mag.Nat.Hist., 7, 1834, p.61, and 8, 1835, pp.625-626. (MD 12/02)
FERGUSON, E.W. A Doctor. Gave 100 Coleoptera from Australia to the NHM in 1916 in exchange (1916.151 and 1916.187). (MD 12/02)
FERGUSSON, Anderson (D?) 1877/78 - January 1949 Described in the only notice I have been able to find about him (Proc.RESL., 14(C), 1949-50, p.64) as a ‘well known Scottish Coleopterist’. He was certainly responsible for the article on Coleoptera in the British Association Handbook for Glasgow and the West of Scotland, 1901, and he published some ten or so notes on beetles in the Ann.Scot.nat.Hist., the EMM. and the Trans.nat.Hist.Soc. Glasgow between 1896 and 1935. The most important of these is probably ‘Some rare Ayrshire Coleoptera’ in the last mentioned journal, (NS) 5, 1896-99, pp.136-137. Fergusson lived in Glasgow and his collection is housed in the University Museum there. (MD 12/02)
FERGUSSON, W.N. Collected 67 Coleoptera and other insects in China which were purchased from W.F.H.Rosenberg by the NHM in 1910 (1910-192). (MD 12/02)