Oxford zoologist who published The Pattern of Animal Communities (1960). His publications on Coleoptera include: ‘The habitat of Staphylinus ater Gr.’ (EMM., 87, 1951, p.175; ‘Prionychus ater (F.) in Wytham Woods, Berks.’ (ibid., 96, 1960, 176-177); and ‘Aulonium trisulcum (Fourc.) in Wytham Woods, Berks.’ (ibid., 106, 1970, pp.190-192). ‘Notes on the fauna of rotting wood in the Spey Valley region, Inverness-shire’, ibid., 106, 1970, pp.180-185, supported the important generalisation, from the conservation point of view, made in his 1966 book, that whereas there are many species of herbivorous animals feeding on green plants that are attached to one species of plant only, or perhaps to one genus, the great majority of saprophagous and predatory animal species have not got restricted food-habits, and also have a relatively wide range of habitat so far as plant species are concerned. In EMM., 119, 1983, p.185 Elton wrote of his friendship for the late Dr Maurice Hobby which had begun in the 1920s and noted that it was from Hobby that he had his first lessons in the lesser-known groups of British insects. Elton gave Staphylinidae from a red squirrel's nest to the NHM in 1937 (1937.361), and insects collected on Oxford University Expeditions to Spitsbergen, Lapland, and Hudson Strait, 1921-31, and also some from Norway, 1921, to the HDO. He also made many small donations between 1940-1966 of British insects to the latter. FRES from 1925. (MD 10/02)