EDWARDS, James

Henry Turner recorded in EMM., 1928, p.279, that Edwards was ‘an Entomologist from childhood’. He did most of his early collecting in the area of Norwich where he lived and by the age of 24 was able to give a collection of local material to the Castle Museum (see below). In 1891 he left Norwich to take up the position of curator and secretary to Henry John Elwes of Colesborne Park, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Here he had charge of one of the largest private collections of butterflies in the country, and in conjunction with Elwes he published a number of important works on this group. On the death of Elwes in 1922 the Colesborne collections were disposed of, but Edwards remained as secretary to Colonel H.C.Elwes who inherited the estate. Although this meant an end to his professional entomological duties, Edwards continued to work in his spare time on the Hemiptera, the group for which he is best known, and the Coleoptera. He died leaving a widow, two sons and a daughter. His first article on Coleoptera appears to have been ‘On an additional aid to the determination of certain British Gyrinidae’, Ent., 23, 1890, pp.105-109. This was closely followed by ‘Coleoptera in Norfolk’, EMM., 26, 1890, pp.64-66, which dealt with the more important captures he had made at Brandon, Horning and Mousehold Heath. By 1895 he was able to publish a list of the Norfolk species amounting to 1,728 entries as part 12 of the Fauna and Flora of Norfolk series in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society and he subsequently up-dated this every five years. This followed on from his list of Norfolk Hemiptera published in 1884. Other important articles included accounts of the British species of the following genera: Haltica (EMM., 27, 1891, pp.289-294); Helophorus (ibid., 44, 1908, pp.218-224); Riolus (ibid., 45, 1909, pp.76-78); Chalcoides (ibid., pp.127-129); Tychius (ibid., 46, 1910, pp.80-83); Smicronyx (ibid., pp.132-135); Haliplus (ibid., 47,1911, pp.1-10,41); Laccobius (ibid., 48, 1912, pp.210-211) and Rhynchites (ibid., 53, 1917, pp.22 26). He described Dryops anglicanus, which he took at Horning, as new to science (ibid., 45, 1909, p.218), and he made a number of further additions to the British list including Oedemera virescens L. (ibid., 39, 1903, pp.64-65); Dryops luridus Er. (ibid., 44, 1908, p.102); and Acanthoscelides obtectus Say (ibid., 51, 1915, pp.140-142). Edwards' main collection was acquired by the Castle Museum, Norwich, in 1929 (20.929). Most of the specimens have no data other than attached numbers. It comprises 10,700 beetles in 20 boxes which are described as the 'main collection'; an unknown number of beetles in 35 other boxes described as 'others'; 1 box of foreign beetles; and 92 boxes of other insects. An earlier collection of 200 beetles, 83 of which were collected in the neighbourhood of Norwich, was acquired by the same museum in 1884. Other Coleoptera collected by Edwards may be found in the C.G.Hall collection at Oldham. There is correspondence between him and W.E.Sharp in the latter's volumes at Liverpool (eg. vol 3, p.116 dated 21.vii.1909). FRES. The account by Turner mentioned above includes a portrait. (MD 10/02)