HUNTER, Frederick Arthur

The following is extracted from a detailed obituary by Colin Johnson and Peter Skidmore in EMM., 141, 2005, pp.125-129 which also includes a photograph (taken in Portugal in 1992) and bibliography. Born in Salford, the son of a Methodist minister. Educated in Royton, near Oldham; Manchester Grammar School and, from 1949, at Cambridge where he studied Zoology and Agriculture obtaining a BA (1953) and MA (1957). At Cambridge he was a keen badminton player and was awarded a half blue. In 1956 he married Hetty Duffy and two years later took up the post of Land Pests Officer for MAFF. Subsequently his work took him to various parts of the country and he lived in Heanor, Ilkeston, Wolverhampton, Reading and Harrogate before finally settling at Knaresborough in 1989. Johnson and Skidmore record that he and his wife were very hospitable and put them up for many weekends so that they could go out beetling together. Hunter’s favourite group were the Cerambycidae and he wrote his first paper on them whilst still at Cambridge: ’Notes on collecting Longhorns’, ERJV., 63, 1951, pp.224-25. At Cambridge he met up with David Twinn, a friend from his school days, and they did their collecting on bicycles visiting Madingley in particular, as well as travelling much further afield. At this time they frequently met with Rev C.E.Tottenham who became a friend and helped with identifications. Hunter joined the Manchester Entomological Society 1957/58 and it was there that Johnson, Skidmore and Brian Cooke first met him. ‘His talks and interest were at first on longhorn beetles and later on all other groups of wood borers or dwellers, and this found a ready response in young beetlers such as ourselves, we soon became good friends and fellow collectors.’ This friendship led to joint collecting trips in the Delamere Forest in 1960 and a trip to the Scottish Highlands in the following year. Hunter was the only driver amongst them and bolted an ancient coach seat into the back of his Morris minor van to accommodate his extra passengers. Regular visits to this locality then continued until 1973 along with trips to Wales Moccas Park, Sherwood Forest, Clumber Park, Windsor, the New Forest, Epping and other important sites. The last site they visited was Duncombe Park in June 1980 where Hunter took Ischnomera cinerascens new to Britain. He is also known to have collected with C. Henderson and H.A.B. Clements in the 1960s and 70s. In later years Hunter’s interest in botany and photographing flowers developed and he travelled extensively in Europe and Oregon in pursuit of pictures. Hunter’s collection of c.4350 specimens (strong on Cerambycids), accompanied by a MS catalogue, is in Leicester Museum. (Fenscore database, but Johnson and Skidmore give the number of specimens as about a thousand in a ten drawer cabinet). A second collection of 258 specimens was given to the Manchester Museum in 1997. The Ptiliid Ptinellodes hunteri was named after him by Johnson and Skidmore. Johnson and Skidmore list 22 notes and articles by Hunter including ‘Ecology of Pine Wood Beetles’ in R.J.H.Bunce and J.R.Jeffers, -, Proc. Aviemore Symposium, 1975, pp. 42-55. FRES (MD 5/03, 12/06).