Brother of Nicholas Cooke, the Lepidopterist. Lived at various addresses in Manchester, Southport, etc.. Cooke's interests covered Diptera, Neuroptera, Trichoptera and Hymenoptera in particular, and these were the subject of most his twenty or so published notes. He was interested in beetles too, however, and I have seen foreign specimens collected by him in the W.W.Ellis collection in Liverpool Museum. Cooke’s main collection of Coleoptera, Diptera and minor orders was sold by Stevens on 19 June 1883. It appears to have been purchased by Janson who subsequently sold it to P. Mason, from whom it passed to Bolton Museum. A note in the Insect Department Register in the Cambridge University Museum states that E.A.Newbery acquired Cooke's 20 drawer cabinet after Janson had cleared the insects out of it. Gilbert,P. (1977) lists seven obituaries. Sharon Reid of the Central Science Laboratory (DEFRA), York, informs me that there are specimens in the F.Bates collection there labelled ‘ex Cooke’ which is presumably this Cooke. (See BATES, F. and WILLIAMS, B.S.). (MD 3/02, 10/03)
Dates
16 September 1816 -4 February 1883