MATTHEWS, Andrew

Son of the Rev. Andrew Hughes Matthews and brother of Rev. Henry Matthews both ornithologists and entomologists. A second brother, J.B. Matthews, lived in Vancouver. Entered Lincoln College, Oxford in 1833 and, after graduating, was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford to the Curacy of Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire. Subsequently moved to Gumley in Leicestershire where he remained for 44 years. Married in 1860 the daughter of John Dodd. Published a joint work with his brother on the birds of Oxfordshire in 1849. His early interest in entomology centred on the Lepidoptera, of which he formed a good collection, and he published his first paper at the age of 14 in Mag.Nat.Hist., 2, 1829, pp.66-67. His first paper on Coleoptera, ‘Notice of some new genera and species of Brachelytra’ appeared in the same journal nine years later (5, 1838, pp.188-98). It was to be the beetles upon which he decided to concentrate and in particular the Ptiliidae then little studied because of their minute size. His first publication on this family ‘A synonymic list of the British Trichopterygidae’ appeared in Zool., 16, 1858, pp.7063-7068, and was subsequently followed by 28 others covering the world fauna, many illustrated with his own careful drawings of his own dissections. In 1872 he published a monograph Trichopterygia Illustrata which dealt with the world fauna, and after his death P.B.Mason, who had acquired much of his collection, published at his own expense a Supplement (1904), the manuscript of which Matthews had completed but not submitted for publication.. Matthews also had some interest in other groups writing on Myllaena, Amblopinus, Leistotrophus, and, later in life, the Corylophidae on which Mason arranged the publication of a companion volume to the Trichopterygia Illustrata titled Corylophidae and Sphaeriidae in 1899 again based on Matthews’ unpublished manuscripts which he edited. Many of these publications described new species to the British list. Many of his collecting trips were undertaken with his brother Henry who found many of his important specimens (see Matthews, Henry) Matthews’ collection, including the types of his Ptiliidae and Myllaena, together with specimens collected by his father, were acquired by Bolton as part of the P.B.Mason collection, after Mason had passed the foreign types described in Trichopterygidae Illustrata to the NHM. There is also a collection of named British Ptiliidae in the HDO acquired in 1886, and Matthews’ specimens are to be found in the general collection at Doncaster Museum and in the H. Willoughby Ellis collection at York Museum (Information from Mike Denton) . Some British Coleoptera (and Lepidoptera) were sold by Stevens on 14 December 1897 and the same auctioneer sold his birds on 16 July 1901 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) pp.134,137). There is a letter from Matthews to Westwood of 1886 in the HDO, and he is mentioned in the Janson diary at Cambridge eg. 1 July 1869, 4 July 1870. His original drawings for the Trichopterygidae Illustrata were in the possession of Charles Mackechnie-Jarvis. There are obituaries, in EMM., 33, 1897, pp.258-60 (by W.W.Fowler, who was a friend of Matthews); Ent News, 8, 1897, p.256; Ent., 30, 1897, p.276; and Trans.ESL., l897, p.lxxiii (by R.Trimen). (MD 2/04)