Well known Californian natural historian who described several species of American Coleoptera, but who was born in Winchester and studied medicine at London University before moving to America in c. 1867. He was sufficiently interested in entomology whilst a student to join the ESL and to attend meetings there, and he subsequently became acquainted with many of the leading British naturalists of his day including T. Huxley, C. Darwin, A. Wallace, T.V.Wollaston, F. Walker and G. Crotch. In America he was particularly well-known as a member of the Arthrozoic Club, which was associated with the California Academy of Sciences, and as Curator of Natural History in the University of California. A list of the insects he described is included in Agassiz (1931) p.747. Rivers’s Coleoptera were sold in Europe, the Cicindelidae through Walther Horn, the Carabidae through H.Roeschke to the Berlin Museum, and the remainder through Kraatz to the Dahlem Entomological Institute. (MD 11/04)
Dates
6 January 1824 – 16 December 1913