Thomas Vernon Wollaston

Thomas Vernon Wollaston (March 9 1822-January 4 1878) was a prominent English entomologist and malacologist, becoming especially known for his studies of Coleoptera inhabiting several North Atlantic archipelagoes. He was well-placed socially. His religious beliefs effectively prevented him from supporting Darwin's theories after 1859, but Darwin remained a close friend. Wollaston supported the theory that continental lands had once extended outward farther to encompass some of the island groups he studied.

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Life

Thomas Vernon Wollaston was born in Scotter, Lincolnshire, England, in 1822. In 1845 he gained a degree B.A. from Jesus College, Cambridge and in 1847 he was made a fellow of the Linnean Society. Wollaston spent the winter of 1847-1848 in Madeira, returning for his Cambridge M.A. graduation in 1849. In the years to 1855 he made four long trips to Madeira. In that year the British Museum purchased his Madeiran collection of Coleoptera. They are now in the Natural History Museum.

In 1858 Wollaston returned to the North Atlantic islands, investigating the investigating natural history of the Canary Islands with Richard Thomas Lowe and John Gray in 1858, returning with Lowe alone in 1859. After a long and rather mysterious absence he returned to the islands in 1866, this time to Cape Verde Islands with Lowe and Gray. The last trip was to St. Helena with his wife, and Gray.

Wollaston died at Teignmouth, Devon, England, in 1878.

Works

• Insecta Maderensia 1854
• On the Variation of Species, with Especial Reference to the Insecta 1856
• Coleoptera Atlantidum 1865
• Testacea Atlantica, or the land and freshwater shells of the Azores, Madeira, Salvages, Canaries, Cape Verdes, and Saint Helena. 1878.

As well Wollaston wrote many short and some lengthy papers on North Atlantic archipelago Coleoptera. A paper attributed to Wollaston on the Diptera of Madeira was almost certainly written by Alexander Henry Haliday.

References

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, Vol. 14 (1877-1878): 213-215.
• Archives of Natural History, Vol. 22 (1995): 333-348.