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OBITUARY NOTICE. 

 Feancis Milbuen Howlett. 



Francis Milburn Hewlett, Imperial Pathological Entomologist to the Govern- 

 ment of India, died at Masm'i on 20th August 1920, after a severe operation. Born 

 in January 1877, he was the eldest son of the late F. J. Howlett of Wymon- 

 dham, Norfolk, and of Mrs. Howlett, now of Norwich. He was educated at 

 Wymondham Grammar School and at Berkhampsted School, whence in 1896 

 he went to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he gained a scholarship. He 

 left Cambridge in 1900 and was for some time on the staff of the Merchant 

 Taylor's School. In 1905 he came out to India to Allahabad, where he was 

 Professor of Biology at the Muir College for about two years, and in November 

 1907 was transferred to the Indian Agricultural Service as Second Imperial 

 Entomologist, a title subsequently altered to that of Imperial Pathological 

 Entomologist, and in this capacity his work dealt with all insects carrjdng 

 disease to man and other animals. 



From early youth Howlett had a strong taste for the study of insects, 

 especially of Diptera, his first paper, published in the Entomologists' Monthly 

 Magazine in 1907, dealing with the mating habits of Empis borealis. During 

 the earlier years of his service in India he was keenly interested in the collection 

 and classification of Indian Diptera and in 1908 he wrote the sections on Diptera 

 and Lice for Lefroy's volume on Indian Insect Life (1909). But the visit to 

 India of Mr. W. W. Froggatt, who showed that fruit-flies were attracted to the 

 smells of certain oils, led Hewlett's attention in the direction of tropic responses 

 in insects, and he subsequently published papers on the influence of temperature 

 on the biting of mosquitoes and on the chemical reactions of fruit-flies. He 

 also published several short papers on sandflies. He was a good artist and 

 several of his papers were illustrated by his own drawings. At the time of his 

 death, he had just completed a book on the control of insect pests, but the 

 manuscript of this has not been forthcoming amongst his papers and appears 

 to have been mislaid. 



During his earlier years in India Howlett suffered from iU-health and was 

 absent on sick leave from 1909 to 1911 and was again absent on leave for 

 two years from 1915 to 1917, but latterly he seemed to have recovered his 

 health and his sudden death, at the comparatively early age of 43, was un- 

 expected and to be regretted. His name is commemorated in that of the 

 tick, Hcemaphysalis howletti, described by Warburton in 1913 from a hill 

 pony at Rawalpindi, and in that of the Empid genus Howlettia, described by 

 Erunetti. 



