Horace Donisthorpe facts for kids
Horace St. John Kelly Donisthorpe (born March 17, 1870 – died April 22, 1951) was a British scientist who studied insects. He was especially interested in ants (a myrmecologist) and beetles (a coleopterist). He was known for being quite unique and for trying to get a group of ants, called Lasius, renamed after himself as Donisthorpea. He also often claimed to have found many new types of beetles and ants.
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About Horace Donisthorpe
Horace Donisthorpe went to school in Leicester and Oakham, then studied medicine at Heidelberg University in Germany. However, he found medicine too difficult because he was "too sensitive." Since he had his own money, he decided to spend his life studying beetles and ants starting around 1890. He wrote over 300 papers just about ants! One story says that when he was young, he swam across the Rhine River in Heidelberg, which was considered a very rare achievement.
One of his favorite places to collect insects was the old forests of Windsor Great Park in Berkshire. He had special permission to explore there, and he made many important discoveries in that area.
During his career, Donisthorpe worked with many other famous British insect experts. He even helped write a book about British beetles with Canon Fowler.
Donisthorpe was sometimes seen as too eager to name new species of ants and beetles. For example, he named 24 new types of beetles from Britain. However, later on, 22 of these were found to be too similar to existing species and were not considered truly new. Only two of the British beetle species he described are still recognized as unique today. These are types of rove beetles:
- Leptacinus intermedius
- Ilyobates bennetti
He also described several ant species that had already been discovered by other scientists. For instance, when he described Leptogenys walkeri, he wrote that he was happy to name it after his friend, Commander J. J. Walker. Another example is Polyrhachis hosei, which he described as being very similar to another species, P.(M.) byyani, with only small differences like being "a larger and more robust insect."
Donisthorpe was a member of the Zoological Society of London and a leader (vice-chairman) of the Royal Entomological Society. He lived in London and was known for hosting many social gatherings. His large collection of British beetles, which he took great care of, is now kept at the Natural History Museum in London.
Books by Horace Donisthorpe
Horace Donisthorpe wrote several important books about insects:
- The Coleoptera of the Isle of Wight (1906): This book was about the beetles found on the Isle of Wight. He also helped add to another large book about British beetles in 1913.
- British Ants: their life histories and classification (1915, revised 1927): This was the first major book ever written about British ants. The first edition included all the known species at the time. The second edition added a small tree-dwelling ant called Lasius brunneus.
- The Guests of British Ants (1927): This book was about other creatures that live with British ants, sometimes even other ants! It also discussed and corrected ideas about how certain beetles might affect ant colonies.
- An Annotated List of the Additions to the British Coleopterous Fauna (1931): This book listed new beetle species found in Britain.
- A Preliminary List of the Coleoptera of Windsor Forest (1939): Donisthorpe dedicated this book to his friend, Florence Jane Kirk, who often joined him on his collecting trips. The book describes the features of Windsor Great Park and lists the many hundreds of beetles he found there, along with details about where each species lived.
Other Writings
As a leader at the Zoological Society of London and through his work at the Natural History Museum, Donisthorpe often wrote articles for science journals. In these articles, he described new species and shared information about insect habits from all over the world.
He also wrote two chapters for a book called Wild Life the World Over, which was published in 1953, two years after he passed away.
Places Donisthorpe Visited in Britain
Horace Donisthorpe traveled to many places across the British Isles to collect and record unusual types of British ants and beetles. Some of these locations include:
- Aviemore, Morayshire
- Chobham Common, near Chobham, Surrey
- Box Hill, Surrey
- Nethy Bridge, Morayshire
- Parkhurst Forest, Isle of Wight
- Rannoch, Perthshire
- The New Forest, including Matley Bog, Hampshire
- Sandown, Isle of Wight
- Weybridge, especially Weybridge Heath, Surrey
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