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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| MATTHEWS, Andrew | 18 June 1815 – 14 September 1897 | Son of the Rev. Andrew Hughes Matthews and brother of Rev. Henry Matthews both ornithologists and entomologists. A second brother, J.B. Matthews, lived in Vancouver. Entered Lincoln College, Oxford in 1833 and, after graduating, was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford to the Curacy of Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire. Subsequently moved to Gumley in Leicestershire where he remained for 44 years. Married in 1860 the daughter of John Dodd. Published a joint work with his brother on the birds of Oxfordshire in 1849. His early interest in entomology centred on the Lepidoptera, of which he formed a good collection, and he published his first paper at the age of 14 in Mag.Nat.Hist., 2, 1829, pp.66-67. His first paper on Coleoptera, ‘Notice of some new genera and species of Brachelytra’ appeared in the same journal nine years later (5, 1838, pp.188-98). It was to be the beetles upon which he decided to concentrate and in particular the Ptiliidae then little studied because of their minute size. His first publication on this family ‘A synonymic list of the British Trichopterygidae’ appeared in Zool., 16, 1858, pp.7063-7068, and was subsequently followed by 28 others covering the world fauna, many illustrated with his own careful drawings of his own dissections. In 1872 he published a monograph Trichopterygia Illustrata which dealt with the world fauna, and after his death P.B.Mason, who had acquired much of his collection, published at his own expense a Supplement (1904), the manuscript of which Matthews had completed but not submitted for publication.. Matthews also had some interest in other groups writing on Myllaena, Amblopinus, Leistotrophus, and, later in life, the Corylophidae on which Mason arranged the publication of a companion volume to the Trichopterygia Illustrata titled Corylophidae and Sphaeriidae in 1899 again based on Matthews’ unpublished manuscripts which he edited. Many of these publications described new species to the British list. Many of his collecting trips were undertaken with his brother Henry who found many of his important specimens (see Matthews, Henry) Matthews’ collection, including the types of his Ptiliidae and Myllaena, together with specimens collected by his father, were acquired by Bolton as part of the P.B.Mason collection, after Mason had passed the foreign types described in Trichopterygidae Illustrata to the NHM. There is also a collection of named British Ptiliidae in the HDO acquired in 1886, and Matthews’ specimens are to be found in the general collection at Doncaster Museum and in the H. Willoughby Ellis collection at York Museum (Information from Mike Denton) . Some British Coleoptera (and Lepidoptera) were sold by Stevens on 14 December 1897 and the same auctioneer sold his birds on 16 July 1901 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) pp.134,137). There is a letter from Matthews to Westwood of 1886 in the HDO, and he is mentioned in the Janson diary at Cambridge eg. 1 July 1869, 4 July 1870. His original drawings for the Trichopterygidae Illustrata were in the possession of Charles Mackechnie-Jarvis. There are obituaries, in EMM., 33, 1897, pp.258-60 (by W.W.Fowler, who was a friend of Matthews); Ent News, 8, 1897, p.256; Ent., 30, 1897, p.276; and Trans.ESL., l897, p.lxxiii (by R.Trimen). (MD 2/04) | |
| MATTHEWS, Andrew Hughes | A Reverend and father of the Reverends Andrew and Henry, and J.B. Matthews. Because all the Matthews collected beetles and one son had the same name and title as the father there has been some confusion about who did what (eg. Hagen, 1862). Unfortunately very little seems to be known about Andrew Hughes, a contemporary of Stephens who was clearly a very competent Coleopterist and lived at Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire. He published ‘On Zerucera aesculi’ in Mag. Nat. Hist. 1 (2), 1829, pp.66-67, and ‘Notice of some new Genera and Species of Brachelytra’ in Ent. Mag., 5, 1838, pp.188-98. This last including Myllaena brevicornis, M. elongata, and M. gracilis which still remain in our list. (MD 11/09) | ||
| MATTHEWS, Henry | d. 1874 -77 | Brother of Andrew (see above) and like him was also ordained. Clearly an enthusiastic Coleopterist but virtually all we know about him is contained in a note ‘Leistotrophus cingulatus in Devonshire; with obituary notice of the Rev. H.Matthews’ (EMM., 14, 1887, pp.38-39). ‘As a collector but few have ever been more successful, he seemed intuitively to recognise any strange form instantly on its appearance, and many of the best species recorded by myself in the pages of the EMM and other publications have been the result of his labours. Assisted by another brother (Mr J.B.Matthews), in Vancouver’s Island he amassed a vast number of rare Coleoptera, including Zacotus Matthewsi, Amphizoa Lecontei, Amphizoa Josephi, and many others new to science. Of these collections which he brought with him on his return... in 1869, and of my brother’s work, Dr Le Conte in the Ann.Mag.Nat.Hist, Dec. 1867, speaks in terms of the highest praise. ‘They have’, he says, ‘with great zeal explored the wilderness of British Columbia and Vancouver’s Island, and, in fact, have obtained the best material yet procured for a study of the distribution of species in those regions which remain, in a scientific sense, the most unexplored portions of North America’. The difficulties with which an entomologist has to contend in those regions will be more clearly understood by the fact, that several expert collectors, including the late G.R.Crotch, have since failed in the attempt to emulate my brother’s work’. On his return to England he contracted an illness whilst collecting in the neighbourhood of Ilfracombe and Westward Ho, Devon, from which he eventually died. Trichopteryx henrici was named after him by his brother Andrew. (MD 2/04,11/09) |