90 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S KECORD. 



which he wrote on British Spiders. Fred Smith, H. T. Stainton and 

 Prof. Westwood were his close intimates. Later in life he collected 

 much in Dorset with Messrs. Nelson Kichardson and Eustace Bankes, 

 and corresponded with most of the entomologists of his time. From time 

 to time he corresponded with Darwin and was one of the early supporters 

 of the hypotheses of the great naturalist, taking an especially strong 

 view about sexual selection and the view that species were still in 

 process of formation. Russel Wallace he often met and in his corres- 

 pondence with him frequently furnished him with notes and 

 observations bearing on the problem of natural selection and other 

 kindred subjects. 



His practical natural history study was mostly done at Bloxworth 

 and in the neighbourhood, as well as in that peculiarly specialised area 

 the Isle of Portland. In the " fifties," however, he was much in the 

 New Forest. An interesting account of a revisit to this classic hunting- 

 ground in 1895 was written by him in the Entamologht, vol. xxix., 

 p. 88. Apart from a long tour through Egypt, Palestine, Austria and 

 Italy, 1864-5, and a few visits to Scotland, his collecting was in the 

 county of Dorset. 



The works which he wrote on the Arachnids are among the classics 

 of the subject, and probably hardly any naturalist has described and 

 recorded so many species. Collections from all parts of the world came 

 to him and his aid and his opinions were consulted on all that was done 

 in this order. The descriptive part of Moggridge's Harvestimj Ants 

 and Trapdoor Spiders, 1874, was written by him. In the Proc. of the 

 Zool. Soc. he described the " Spiders of Palestine and Syria," 1872, in 

 the same serial appeared descriptions of the " Spiders of Egypt," 1876. 

 Perhaps the work which has had most attraction for naturalists in this 

 country is his Monoriraph of the Spiders of Dorset, 1879-81, in 

 which all the British Species of Spider known at the time were dealt 

 with. In 1885 he described the spiders captured during the Yarkand 

 expedition, and in 1889 appeared his Monograph of the British 

 Fhalangidae or Harvestuien. All the Arachnida taken during the 

 famous " Challenger " expedition were described by him ; and later 

 most of the material for the Arachnid portion of the Biologia Centrali 

 Americana passed through his hands to be dealt with for description 

 and figuring ; and in addition he contributed very numerous papers, 

 records, descriptions, etc., to the magazines and periodicals. All his 

 work was illustrated by his accurate and delicately executed drawings. 



Of Lepidoptera he had a practically complete collection of the 

 British species, all of which were, with a very few exceptions, captured 

 by himself, as he had a strong dislike to anything approaching formal 

 " exchange," although he was at all times ready to give freely to others 

 and delighted to help the young collector. Of some of the rarer older 

 species he had fine series. The only British specimen of Hi/pena 

 obsitalis is in his collection and there are the two specimens of Nreres 

 [Ltjcaena) anjiades, which his sons took in his own neighbourhood. His 

 series of the Microlepidoptera are said to be especially fine and well set ; 

 with his friend Mr. Eustace Bankes he had worked very assiduously at 

 this group during the latter part of the last century. He seemed 

 indefatigable as a worker, collecting any insects which came in his way, 

 while specially devoting himself to the pursuit of spiders and 

 Lepidoptera. I had almost forgotten, that for the rediscovery of Bnclderia 

 paludinit in this country we have to thank our departed co-worker, who 



