THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXVIL] MAY, 1894. [No. 872. 



THE LATE ME. JOHN JENNER WEIR, F.L.S., F.Z.S., 

 F.E.S., & F.R.H.S. 



Many of our readers must have been pained by the brief 

 announcement made in our last issue of the death of this 

 gentleman, and will, we are sure, gladly receive some particulars 

 of the interesting and well-filled life that, after so brief a warning, 

 has come to a close. Mr. Jenner Weir was born at Lewes on the 

 9th of August, 1822. Like many who have done much valuable 

 work in Natural History, it was only in his leisure hours that he 

 could pursue the study, other avocations engrossing the principal 

 part of his time. In 1839 he entered the Customs service, and 

 passed on through various stages, until in 1874 he was made 

 Accountant and Controller-General of H.M.'s Customs, London. 

 The estimation in which he was held may be gathered fiom the 

 comment made by the * Civil Service Review ' of August 22nd 

 of that year, in announcing his appointments : " It is believed 

 that this is one of those rare instances in which promotion gives 

 universal satisfaction." In August, 1885, he retired from the 

 Civil Service. 



Mr. Jenner Weir's interest in Entomology did not begin at so 

 early an age as it has often done with many others ; at least he 

 did not take it up as a study until the summer of 1843. His 

 first public communication on the subject was to the ' Zoologist,' 

 dated the 14th June, 1845, on the capture of Ino (Procris) 

 glohularice, Agrotis cinerea, and Cramhus pygmceus (= Platytes 

 cerussellus) at Lewes. Late in 1844 he attended a meeting of the 

 Entomological Society for th^ first time ; and in January, 1845, 

 he was elected a Member, which he continued to be for the 

 remainder of his life, a period of nearly fifty years, being at his 

 death almost its oldest member. For many years Mr. Jenner 

 Weir worked assiduously at the Micro-Lepidoptera ; but in 1870 

 an accident, which resulted in the loss of the top of the left 

 thumb, put an end to the setting of these insects. 



ENTOM. — MAY, 1894, N 



