OBITUARY. 23 



made many contributions to tlie entomological journals of the period, 

 viz., the ' Entomologist's Companion,' the ' Weekly Intelligencer,' 

 and the 'Entomologist's Annual.' He was the intimate friend of 

 Stainton, and was thus led to pay special attention to the Micros ; 

 for the patient study of these his quiet, painstaking nature, and his 

 delicately clever fingers equipped him well ; he loved to breed the 

 tiny creatures, and to work out their life-histories for his friend, who 

 was then preparing his great work upon the subject. Thanks to 

 what Stainton calls his " untiring energy," Thomas Boyd was 

 successful in adding eleven new species to the "British List" 

 between 1853 and 1858, five of which were new to Science. The 

 new species were : — 



Gelechia ocellatella, Boyd; taken at the Lizard, Cornwall (Weekly 

 Int. vol. iv. p. 143, and Ent. Ann. 1859, p. 151). 



Ghjphipteryx schoinicoleUa, Boyd =fiscJieriella, Zell. ; bred from 

 the Lizard (Weekly Int. vol. iv. p. 144, and Ent. Ann. 1859, p. 153). 



Nepticida j^ni'iietoriim, Sta. ; bred from Loudwater, Bucks (Ent. 

 Ann. 1855, p. 72, second edit.). 



Nepticula airicolUs, Sta. ; bred (Ent. Ann. 1857, p. 112). 



Nepticida luteella, Sta. ; bred (Ent. Ann. 1857, p. 110, and 18GG, 

 p. 37). 



And the species new to Britain : — 



Diascmia ramburialis, Dup. ; taken at Probus, Cornwall (Ent. 

 Ann. 1859, p. 149, with fig.). 



PlaUjptilia zctterstcdtii, Zell. ; taken at Lynmouth, Devon (Ent. 

 Ann. 1856, p. 44). 



Gelechia arundinetella, Sta. ; bred from near Hackney (Weekly 

 Int. vol. ii. p. 139, and Ent. Ann. 1858, p. 91). 



Gelechia leucomelanella, Zell. ; bred from the Lizard, Cornwall 

 (Ent. Ann. 1859, p. 150). 



Coleophora limosipennella, Fisch. & F. v. R. ; bred (Ent. Comp. 

 p. 133, and Ent. Ann. 1855, p. 67). 



Nepticida arcuatella, H. S. = N. arcuata, Frey ; bred (Ent. Ann. 



1858, p. 97). 



He also was the first to rear Coleophora inflatce, Sta. (Ent. Ann. 

 1857, p. 105). 



But Thomas Boyd was no narrow specialist ; he took a broad 

 view of Nature, the study of which was ever to him "the contempla- 

 tive man's recreation " ; in particular he was also a good field 

 botanist, a conchologist, and a microscopist. And though he never 

 wrote much, soon after the publication of the ' Origin of Species ' in 



1859, he felt compelled to champion Darwin's theories in an interest- 

 ing article on the subject, which he contributed to the leading 

 entomological journal of those days, the ' Weekly Intelligencer ' 

 (vol. ix. p. 149), because, he says, Darwin " has received such a 

 scant measure of fair play in your pages." 



Thomas Boyd married Sarah Harriette Stone (daughter of the 

 Eev. William Stone, M.A.) in 1864, and leaves two sons and three 

 daughters. About thirty years ago he handed over the best things 

 in his collection of Lepidoptera, including the above-named types, 

 to his cousin, the late William Christopher Boyd, of The Grange, 



