No other family could surely boast such an intimate involvement with beetles. Five members over three generations were Coleopterists, four by profession, and, through marriage, they were related to the Griesbachs with four more, and the Ryes with two. Mackechnie Jarvis (1976) illustrates a family tree (p.100). Details of each member are included below but I have added this additional note because of the confusion which surrounds the fate of their collections According to Waterhouse et.al.(1906) p. 599, ‘The types of all the species described’ by Charles Owen went to the NHM together with ‘All the type specimens that were in [George Robert’s]collection before it was broken up’. This has led to the belief not just that there were several British collections but that at least one of them (G.R.’s) was split up and sold off. In fact it would seem, at least in so far as the Coleoptera are concerned, that neither is correct. The splitting up referred to related to the separation of the British material from the foreign, and the sales concerned only books (GR on 2 July 1880) and Lepidoptera (FH and EA 18 April 1916). The main evidence is the presence in the RSM of a large beetle collection occupying one cabinet of 28 drawers with two longer, loose drawers on top (in 1979); two cabinets of 10 drawers each and a further cabinet of 15 drawers, which was acquired by the Museum from the School of Agriculture at Edinburgh University. (The accession number is 1979.086, but this is not the year of acquisition but the number given when I pointed out in that year that it had not been accessioned).. Almost no data labels are included but some specimens are inscribed with numbers and initials under the cards eg. 32.59 GRW. Those specimens which do have labels were clearly acquired from other collectors eg Champion and Bedwell. There are also Griesbach specimens included. Confirmation that this the Waterhouse family collection is provided by the presence of five accompanying ms volumes as follows: Red leather, inscribed on cover Localities CW . Lists collecting trips from 1.10.1855 to 6.66 and, after a long gap in a very shaky hand ‘August 3 1881 went to Felixstowe and Harwich. Could not get lodgings’. Earlier references include ‘6.62 April 26 1862 Wandsworth Common (w.papa)’, ‘Uncle Alex (12.59)’, ‘Ted and F. (5.60)’, ‘Papa and Annie (12xx.60)’, etc.. Red leather, inscribed inside cover G.R.Waterhouse. Includes: p.1: ‘specimens marked with a small yellow label or BM are from the grounds of the British Museum’, then follows list, ‘CP Crystal Palace – soon before the opening day.’ p.11: ‘W Specimens found in the Isle of Wight end of August and beginning of September 1854’. Then follows detailed list of what caught and how. p.12: ‘F specimens from Felixstowe, Suffolk Septr 1852’. From p.13 reverts to dates eg 1.6.55 which was applied to specimens. These continue until 1894. Each expedition was carefully recorded and from 1856 were numbered in each year eg ‘1.1856 went to the Hammersmith Marshes with Dr Power’. Red leather, inscribed on cover E.A.Waterhouse F.H.R. etc.. Lists collecting trips from 1.71 (19 February 1871) to 2.75 (June 1875). Red leather, inscribed Localities 1871. Repeats above to 14.72 only. Includes a set of loose sheets which suggest that a third copy was intended. Vellum, inscribed Edward A. Waterhouse, Fountains Hall. Ripon. April 1867. This lists expeditions and captures from September 1876 – 1914 and includes information about weather, localities, accompanying collectors, etc.. It would seem from the immaculate and very consistent mounting of the specimens that work on the collection may have involved the re-mounting of specimens by successive generations of the family. Hancock and Pettit (1981) record that there are also beetles collected by C.O.Waterhouse at Stonyhurst College. I presume that these are now in Wakefield Museum which acquired other Stonyhurst College material . The NHM houses two ms notebooks kept by Charles Owen,which include Coleoptera records with notes and letters from other entomologists, 1868-1900, and a collection of approximately 200 letters mainly to Charles Owen and George Robert from various entomologists including G.R.Crotch (1870); J.F.Stephens (1839) and J.Walton (1840) . They also have a collection of material associated with George Robert which includes: loose leaf notes on Amycterinae (Curculionidae) annotated by K.G.Blair; three ms leaves List of Coleoptera belonging to J.de la Touche; one ms volume being a Register of his private collection of Coleoptera; 2 ms leaves listing Species of Hister from the collection of Mr Waterhouse, British Museum; and a copy of the his Pocket Catalogue (1861) heavily annotated by J.Power. (Harvey, et.al.(1996) pp.216-17). (MD 12/04)