Two little-known nineteenth century collectors: Dr Thomas Dowler and John Keast Lord, Esq., F.Z.S

Neither Dowler nor Lord seems personally to have left any record in the entomological literature, but both made or obtained significant collections of insects in areas which at the time, and for a considerable period subsequently, were entomological terrae incognitae. Their collections were drawn on extensively by contemporary describers, for example, by Frederick Smith and Francis Walker, and what remains of their material is concentrated in the collections of The Natural History Museum, London. There is no entry for Dowler in D.N.B., and no entries for either in Horn and Kahle (1935-37), Gilbert (1977) or Horn, Kahle, Friese and Gaedike (1990), and an appeal for information published in Newsletter 51 (January 1995) of the Society for the History of Natural History elicited no response. The present note, which is written with particular reference to their Hymenoptera, is published with the intention of drawing attention to their material and in the hope that the wider circulation of the Archives may bring further biographical detail to light.