102 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



i May 



J. B. Hodgkinson was born at Preston, in Lancashire, in the year 

 1823. Four years later his parents removed to Carlisle where they 

 resided eleven years. His father was fond of Botany, and made the 

 acquaintance at that city, of the late T. C. Heysham, a noted Ornithol- 

 ogist and Entomologist. Calling there one day with his son, the 

 subject of our sketch, they saw some butterflies pinned on a cushion. 

 Their attention was attracted to them, Mr. Heysham lent them Lewin, 

 Donovan, and other works with coloured plates, the taste for Natural 

 History was awakened, collecting was commenced at once, with 

 enthusiasm that would not wait for proper equipment, an old fishing 

 net was made to do duty for an insect net, and from that time forward 

 Mr. Hodgkinson has never wearied in his pursuit of Lepidoptera. 

 Yet his circumstances were such as would deter many less persevering 

 or possessed of less ardour. He served his time to be an engineer, 

 and worked as journeyman at Manchester, at North Fleet in Kent, 

 and at other places where work was to be had. When about 40 years 

 of age he went into the cotton trade, in which business he remained 

 some 20 years, then retired to devote his well earned leisure entirely 

 to his favourite study. 



Mr. Hodgkinson was thus a contemporary and co-worker with 

 those men who made the North of England so famous in Entomological 

 Annals, and during his long career he has become known for the many 

 new species he has introduced into the British list, and the many 

 rarieties with which he has assisted collectors. 



In 1846 he had a two months tour in Scotland, during which he 

 visited Rannock, then less known as a collecting ground than it is 

 to-day. During this trip he captured some 1,700 specimens of 

 Lepidoptera including 6 species new to the British fauna, viz. : Fidonia 

 carbonaria, Scopula decrepitalis, Coccyx cosmophomna, Stigmonota dorsana, 

 Tinea picarella, and Lithocolletis vacciniella. Of these the late Henry 

 Doubleday named carbonaria and picarella from pen and ink sketches 

 sent him by Mr. Hodgkinson. Ten years later, he and the late T. H. 

 Allis took Cidaria reticulata, but passed it over as a second brood of 

 silaceata. Shortly after this Allis was at Epping, looking over 

 continental types, when Doubleday pointed to this species and said 

 "Thomas thou ought to take this in thy rambles in the Lake District." 

 Allis said they had it already, but it was twenty years longer before it 

 was met with again. The Rev. J. Hellens then told Mr. Hodgkinson 

 the food-plant and in 1878 he reared the species, and another new 

 to Britain (Penthina postremana) from the same plant. Altogether he 

 has added about 30 species to the British list, two of which, Pterophorus 

 Hodgkinsoni, and Nepticula Hodgkinsonii were named after him, the 

 former by his friend and co-worker Mr. C. S. Gregson, though some 

 now consider it to be a var. of the Zophodactylus of Duponchel. 



