Roy Albert Crowson (22 November 1914 in

Hadlow Hadlow is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte (in t ...

, Kent – 13 May 1999) was an English biologist who specialised in the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s. He was curator at the Tunbridge Wells Museum, and then lectured at the Zoology Department of the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. The beetle family '' Crowsoniella'' is named in his honour.

Life

Crowson was born on 22 November in Hadlow, Kent. He was educated at the

Judd School The Judd School (often known simply as Judd) is an 11–18 Voluntary aided school, voluntary aided, grammar school and sixth form in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It was established in 1888 at Stafford House on East Street in Tonbridge, where it rema ...

, in Tonbridge and then at

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

, London University where he completed his Ph.D. in 1937. Crowson served in the Royal Air Force during the war, and was the Assistant Curator of the Tunbridge Wells Museum from 1938. Crowson moved from the Tunbridge Wells Museum to the Zoology Department of the

from 1949, where he was appointed as a lecturer. He collected beetles and their

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e from around the world and studied the relationships between them. His 1955 monograph, ''The natural classification of the families of Coleoptera'', established a system for the classification of beetles that remains in use. His collections of British Coleoptera are in the

Hunterian Museum The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

, Glasgow, and his collections of world families, including large quantities of microscope slides and dissections, in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

, London. Crowson collected abroad in the Central Apennines, Italy, and in Australia and New Zealand, after gaining a

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

fellowship. Some of his collected specimens are in Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. A

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

honouring Crowson was given in 1995. The beetle family ''Crowsoniella'' is named in his honour. Hadlow died on 13 May 1999.

Family

Crowson worked closely with his wife, Elizabeth Anne Crowson (1928–2006), who was also a respected naturalist as well as a university lecturer in botany. They frequently collected and published papers together.

Works

* ''The natural classification of the families of Coleoptera'', Nathaniel Lloyd & Co., Ltd., London, 1955. * ''Coleoptera: introduction and key to families'', Handbooks for the identification of British insects, Royal Entomological Society of London, London, 1957
pdf
* ''Classification and biology'', Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, London, 1970. * ''Biology of the Coleptera'', Academic Press, 1981.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowson, Roy 1914 births 1999 deaths English coleopterists 20th-century British zoologists People from Hadlow Alumni of Imperial College London Academics of the University of Glasgow English curators