Gave 497 Coleoptera which he had collected in Mashonaland and Beira to the NHM in 1903 (1903.174). (MD 6/02)

Well-known Lepidopterist. 41 Coleoptera which he collected with G.B.Longstaff in South Africa were given to the NHM by Longstaff in 1905 (1905.314). There are 9 obituaries and other notices listed in Gilbert (1977). (MD 6/02)

Born at Rotherhithe the son of Captain Alexander Distant ‘who in old South-Sea whaling-days, sailed round and round the world, and transmitted a love of roaming to his sons’ (dedication by William in a Naturalist in the Transvaal (1892)). It was in his father's company on one of these voyages, which set out on 5 August 1867 for the Malayan Peninsula, that Distant acquired the love of natural history, and particularly entomology, which was to dominate the rest of his life. In his early career Distant was connected with a tannery.

Gave one specimen of Catoxantha castelnaudi to the NHM in 1870 (70.25) and another of Monochammus sp. in 1873 (73.30). Both specimens were from Penang. (MD 6/02)

Gave 400 British Coleoptera to the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 7 April 1884 (Davis and Brewer (1986)). (MD 6/02)

Born in Horsham and lived there for the greater part of his life. A cabinet maker by profession, he served in the Boer War and in the Navy during the First World War, and was also employed as an estate gardener. In his obituary of Dinnage in EMM., 91, 1955, p.292, A.A.Allen records that his first interest in entomology was the Lepidoptera but that this gave way to the Coleoptera around 1925 under the influence of his friend Dr Padwick who lived in Horsham and knew Norman Joy.

Born at Ipswich the son of William Dillwyn of Higham Lodge, Walthamstow. Received his early education at a Friends' school at Tottenham. It was here that he met Joseph Woods who was to remain his life-long friend and who accompanied him to Folkestone after leaving school in an attempt to improve his poor health. In 1798 he moved to Dover where he began the botanical studies which were to occupy an important part of his life and which formed the bulk of his publications.

Thanked by Johnson and Halbert (1902) p.542 for help. (MD 6/02)

Born in Liverpool. Emigrated to Australia in 1853 and after residing for one year in Sydney moved to Brisbane with his family. Best known as an ornithologist and as a draughtsman, but he collected insects too. The Cetoniid Dysectoda digglesi was named after him by Janson. Diggles’s collection of Lepidoptera is in the South Australian Museum atAdelaide. 215 Coleoptera collected by Diggles in Australia were purchased by the NHM from Stevens in 1857 (57.130). There is an account with bibliography in A. Musgrave (1932) pp.64-65.

Listed in Ent. Ann., 1860, as being interested in the ‘Coleoptera of the whole world’. His address is given as Trinity Hall, Cambridge. (MD 6/02)