DENNY, Henry

Born in Norwich. Lived there until 1825 when he moved to Leeds following his appointment as Sub-Curator (later re-titled Curator and Assistant Secretary) of the Leeds Philosophical Society. He was also Secretary to the West Riding Geological and Polytechnic Society which involved various duties including the preparation for publication of the Transactions. To both Societies he contributed frequent papers on a wide range of subjects including entomology. Denny's interest in beetles was mainly confined to the period before 1825 when he published his well-known Monographia Pselaphidarum et Scydmaenidarum Britanniae or an ‘Essay on the British species of the Genera Pselaphus, of Herbst. and Scydmaenus of Latreille in which those Genera are subdivided, and all the Species hitherto discovered in Great Britain are accurately described and arranged, with an indication of the Situations in which they are usually found: each Species illustrated by a highly magnified Figure’, and moved to Leeds. In Norwich he appears to have been in close contact with a number of entomologists including Rev. William Kirby, to whom he dedicated his book and thanked 'for innumerable instances of patronage, and personal favours', and Simon Wilkin, who printed and published it for him. He also knew George Samouelle who referred to him as 'our much respected friend'. The Monographia is remarkably detailed for its date, and although Denny occasionally ascribes the males and females of the same species to different species, two of his new Scydmaenidae Scydmoraphes sparshalli, and Stenichnus bicolor, and six of his new Pselaphidae: Bibloporus bicolor, Bibloplectus pusillus, Euplectus kirbyi, E. sanguineus, Bythinus burrelli and Bryaxis puncticollis still survive. Following his move to Leeds Denny seems to have devoted himself to the study of parasitic insects and he published only one further piece on the Coleoptera ‘Note on Clytus arietis’ in Ent. Mag., 2, 1834, p.114. His new interest eventually led to the publication of the Monographia Anoplurorum Britanniae, 1842, for which he received a special grant from the British Association, and to a catalogue of the Anoplura in the British Museum published in 1852. Some notes for his work on Anoplura are now in the HDO, including correspondence with Hope and Westwood. A collection of Anoplura, including some Darwin material, was purchased by Westwood from Denny's representatives after his death and is also in this institution. Apart from his close association with the Yorkshire Societies mentioned above Denny was also a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and of the Syro-Egyptian Society in London; an Associate of the Linnean Society (from 19 December 1843); and an honorary Member of the Philosophical Society of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. There is an obituary in Proc.LSL., 1870-71, pp.84-85. (MD 6/02)