General entomologist known primarily for his work on varieties and speciation in Lepidoptera particularly Peronea cristana, and for his Catalogue of the British Ichneumonidae in the British Museum, 1856. He also worked on Coleoptera, however, particularly in the early part of his career when he published a ‘Note on Elater crocatus from Ziegler’, in Ent.Mag., 4, 1837, p.255; ‘New British Elater’ in Ent., 1, 1842, p.326, and ‘Captures in Shirewood Forest’, ibid., pp. 188-89. The new Elater, which he called Elater rufitarsis, was taken from rotten wood in Windsor Forest and is now synonymised with Ampedus nigerrimus (Lacordaire). The Shirewood list included some 37 rare species of Coleoptera. As late as 1856 when he was thoroughly immersed in the Ichneumonidae he still listed the Coleoptera before his other interests in Ent. Ann.. Desvignes died at Woodford, Essex where he had lived for at least ten years. His collection was sold by Stevens a few weeks later on 30 June 1868. The EMM noted that it was ‘altogether a fine one, and in the Ichneumonidae, as may be supposed, the finest ever formed of the British species. In the aculeate Hymenoptera it is also good, including as it does, the types of Schuckard's Fossores; and in the Coleoptera it is rich in Elateridae and Xylophaga, containing many rare species in other groups, and including Schuckard's collection. There is also a good collection of Diptera, to which order Mr Desvignes at one time paid considerable attention' (5, 1868, p.26). Part of this material appears to have been acquired by Edward Wesley Janson. Oliver Janson, his son, noted in his diary, now in the Cambridge University Zoological Museum, that his father had made a purchase at the sale. There are obituaries in EMM., 5, 1868-69, pp.25-26, and Trans.ESL., Proc. LVI, 1868. The latter, by Edward Newman, makes no mention of Coleoptera. (MD 6/02)
Dates
1812 - 11 May 1868