William Lucas Distant
William Lucas Distant | |
|---|---|
| File:WLDistant.jpg | |
| Born | 12 November 1845 |
| Died | 4 February 1922 (aged 76) Wanstead, England |
| Occupation | Entomologist |
| Spouse | Edith Blanche de Rubain |
William Lucas Distant (12 November 1845 Rotherhithe – 4 February 1922 Wanstead) was an English entomologist.
Biography
[edit | edit source]Early years
[edit | edit source]Distant was born in Rotherhithe, the son of whaling captain Alexander Distant[1] and his wife, Sarah Ann Distant (née Berry).[2]
Following his father's death in 1867, a trip to the Malay Peninsula to visit his older brother, also named Alexander and a ship's captain, aroused his interest in natural history, and resulted in the publication of Rhopalocera Malayana (1882–1886), a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. (He considered 5 August 1867 as the most eventful day in his life[1]).
Career
[edit | edit source]Much of Distant's early life was spent working in a London tannery, and while employed there he made two long visits to the Transvaal. The first resulted in the publication of A Naturalist in the Transvaal (1892). The second visit, of some four years, gave him time to amass a large collection of insects, of which many were described in Insecta Transvaaliensia (1900–1911). In 1890 he married Edith Blanche de Rubain.
In 1897 he succeeded James Edmund Harting as editor of The Zoologist.[1] He was editor for eighteen years, until the end of 1914, and saw "the substitution of the camera for the gun, more especially among ornithologists."[3] The last two volumes of the journal were edited by Frank Finn. At the end of 1916 The Zoologist amalgamated with British Birds (founded 1908).[4]
From 1899 to 1920 he was employed by the Natural History Museum, describing many new species found in their collection, and devoting most of his time to the "Rhynchota" (a former grouping within true bugs).
His other works included Volume I of the Heteroptera and part of Volume I of the Homoptera of the Biologia Centrali-Americana (1880–1900), and the Hemiptera volumes of The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma (1902–1918).
Later life
[edit | edit source]Distant's collection of 50,000 specimens was purchased by the Natural History Museum in 1920. He died of cancer at Wanstead.[5]
Legacy
[edit | edit source]Distant is commemorated in the scientific names of more than 15 animal genera, and well over 100 species, almost exclusively among Hemiptera.
One lizard is also named after Distant, Agama aculeata distanti (BOULENGER 1902).[6]
Publications
[edit | edit source]A partial list of works is as follows.[7]
- 1902-1918: The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. (Rhynchota volumes 1–7)
- 1900-1911: Insecta Transvaaliensia: A Contribution to the Entomology of South Africa.[8]
- A Naturalist in the Transvaal[9]
- A Monograph of Oriental Cicadidae
- Rhopalocera Malayana: A Description of the Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula
- Biologia Centrali-Americana: Insecta Rhynchota Hemiptera-Heteroptera
- Rhynchotal Notes: Membracidae
- Rhynchota from New Caledonia and the Surrounding Islands in Fritz Sarasin and Jean Roux's Nova Caledonia: Forschungen in NeuCalodonien und auf den Loyalty-Inslen – Recherches scientifiques en Nouvelle Calédonie et aux Iles Loyalty
- A Synonymic Catalogue of Homoptera
- 1912: Homoptera: fam. Cicadidae: subfam. Cicadinae.[10]
- Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission: Based Upon the Collections and Notes of the Late Ferdinand Stoliczka: Rhynchota
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c Rao, B.R. Subba (1998) History of Entomology in India. Institution of Agricultural Technologists, Bangalore.
- ^ London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/GEO/045.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). See also: title page of vol. 10, issue 8 of British Birds—the first issue with the text "With which is incorporated 'The Zoologist'".
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- ^ Dolling, W. R. (1991). Bibliographies of the works of W. L. Distant and G. W. Kirkaldy. Tymbal, suppl. no. 1: 60 pp.
- ^ Insecta Transvaaliensia (1900–1911): OCLC 668405524; pt.4 Lepidoptera (1903) in Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Homoptera (1912): OCLC 843365845
External links
[edit | edit source]- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
- Wikisource logo Works by or about [[:s:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 482: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 555: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]] at Wikisource
- Error creating thumbnail: Data related to William Lucas Distant at Wikispecies
- NDSU biographical information. Archived link. Archived 14 July 2006. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
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- Biologia Centrali-Americana – Insecta, Hemiptera, Heteroptera-Homoptera
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