94 ['^P'^' 



luirivalled. His association with Leicester brought him into contact with the 

 Bates family, and he acquired the Cicindelidae and Rutelidse of Mr. F. Bates. 

 Latterly, perliaps, he took more interest in the Cicindelidm than in any other 

 ^oup, and the amalgamation of his own valuable collection with that got 

 together by Mr. Bates, and the purchases which he has since made at great 

 cost, have resulted in producing one of the finest collections of the family at 

 present known. 



Mr. Nevinson was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society in 1889, of 

 the Zoological Society in 1878, and a Member of the Societe Entomologique 

 Fran(,-aise in 1871. He was more of a collector than a writer, but there is no 

 doubt that if he had really taken up the study of any group he would have been 

 among the f oi-emost of our Entomologists ; as it was, he was always ready to put 

 his collections and knowledge at the disposition of any one who required help, 

 and several of us have to thank him for the loan of many valuable specimens. 



His geniality and hospitality made him many friends ; of late years he had 

 not been out so mucli, and therefore is less known to the present generation of 

 Entomologists, but he will be much missed by many. — W. W. F. 



George Carter Bignell. — On the 1st of March, barely breathing into the 

 morn of his 84th birthday, Mr. George Carter Bignell, F.E.S., the veteran 

 entomologist of the West of England, passed away at his residence, " The 

 Ferns," Saltash. 



Mr. Bignell was born at Exeter, in 1826, and made his fii-st start in life 

 at the early age of twelve years. In 1842 he joined the Royal Marines at 

 Stonehovise, and five years later he was on board the " Superb " off the coasts 

 of Spain and Portugal diu-ing the eventful times of the Eevolution. This 

 period of active service was followed by a "home billet," at the Millbay 

 Barracks, Plymouth, which lasted for seven years. Here he had the opportunity 

 to seriously prosecute his taste for natural history, and he did not fail to avail 

 himself of it. The year 1864 saw Mr. Bignell freed from the " service " and settled 

 at Stonehouse as Registrar of Births and Deaths and Poor Law Officer. This 

 position gave him much sjiare time, which he largely devoted to the rearing of 

 Lepidopterous larvae. Somewhere, too, about this period, his latent talent for 

 water-colotu- painting awakened. He made up his mind that it was to be done, 

 and forthwith commenced to draw and paint from natiu-e ; crudely at first, but 

 success eventually came and he attained a high reputation for his scrtxpulously 

 life-like figvu'es. His own copy of " Newman's British Moths," with coloui-ed 

 drawings of numbers of the larvae, is a beautiful example of his work. 



We next find Mr. Bignell rearing larvae solely for the sake of their 

 parasitic flies ; and, later still, studying the parasites and hyper-parasitea of 

 tlie Aphides, &c. In this branch of Entomology he won rank in the forefront 

 of the science. He discovered no fewer than 51 of these parasites new to 

 Britain, of which 19 were new to science, and was honoured by having the two 

 species, Mesoleius big^ielUi and Apanteles bignellii named after him. His 

 collection of Aphis-parasites and hyi^er-parasites is uniqvxe, and is now in the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington ; those in all other orders have 

 been acqviired by the Plymouth Borough Museiuu. 



