Biography William Lucas Distant

1 biography

1.1 years
1.2 career
1.3 later life

biography
early years

distant born in rotherhithe, son of whaling captain alexander distant.

a whaling trip father in 1867 (he considered 5 august 1867 eventful day in life) malay peninsula aroused interest in natural history, , resulted in publication of rhopalocera malayana (1882–1886), description of butterflies of malay peninsula.

career

much of distant s life spent working in london tannery, , whilst employed made 2 long visits transvaal resulted firstly in publication of naturalist in transvaal (1892). second visit, of 4 years, gave him time amass large collection of insects, of many described in insecta transvaaliensia (1900–1911). in 1890 married edith blanche de rubain. in 1897 succeeded james edmund harting editor of zoologist. 1899 1920 employed natural history museum, describing many new species found in collection, , devoting of time rhynchota (true bugs).

part of plate xvii insecta transvaaliensia

his other works included volume of heteroptera , part of volume of homoptera of biologia centrali-americanum (1880–1900), , hemiptera volumes of fauna of british india, including ceylon , burma(1902–1918).

later life

distant s collection of 50,000 specimens purchased natural history museum in 1920. died of cancer @ wanstead.