Robert Templeton

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For other people named Robert Templeton, see Robert Templeton (disambiguation).

Robert Templeton (12 December 1802 – 2 June 1892

entomologist, and was born at Cranmore House, Belfast
, Ireland.

Robert Templeton

Life and work

A watercolour plate by Robert Templeton illustrating Sri Lankan butterflies

Robert Templeton was the son of

John Templeton, and was educated in Belfast Academical Institution, which was in part his father's creation. In 1821 he left Ireland for Edinburgh, Scotland to study medicine and following graduation practised in the university hospital. In the same year he became a Member of the Belfast Natural History Society. In 1833 (6 May) he was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon in the Royal Artillery, initially stationed at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich
, close to London, England.

In 1834, Templeton was stationed to

Entomological Society of London
.

A twelve-year stay in

Madras, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka- and twice Northern India Uttarakhand and Kashmir. Recalled from Ceylon in 1852 due to the unrest in Europe which was to erupt in the bloody and terrible Crimean War, he served in the Crimea
from March 1854 – 1856 and was promoted to Surgeon-Major on 7 December 1855. He retired with the honorary rank of Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals on 31 January 1860.

Work on Thysanura

Thysanurae hibernicaePlate 11

Templeton was particularly interested in the

John Obadiah Westwood Templeton described two new genera and twelve new species
accompanied by two plates showing whole animals and details of structure. Forty years later the entomologist Lubbock paid tribute to Templeton's early work by naming a thysanuran genus after him — Templetonia.

Work on spiders

Much of Templeton's early work and very much in Ceylon was on spiders. Studies of Irish spiders were passed to John Blackwall who incorporated the notes and drawings into his own work. Oddly, although he collected my old pets the spiders, he published very little on them.

Work on Sri Lankan arthropods

In Ceylon Templeton worked mainly on

papilionid
butterflies and two species descriptions — Oiketicus terlius and Oiketicus (Cryptothelia) consortus.

A Ceylon blue oakleaf butterfly Kallima philarchus from the Templeton Collection at the Ulster Museum

The bulk of the new

butterflies and moths
in Ceylon, many new to science. Templeton supplied many of the insects incorporated in Westwood's book Oriental Cabinet, one of which, the beetle Compsosternus templetonii bears his name.

Unfortunately only the published part of Templeton's correspondence with Westwood (the Secretary of the Entomological Society) survived, the

centipedes Scolopendra pallipes and S. crassa in two (published) communications to Westwood. Many of his manuscripts were lost when the clipper Memnon
sank in 1851.

Templeton Insect Collection

The Ceylon insects are in the Natural History Museum, London. Many are Types of the new species described by Francis Walker.

  • Walker F. 1858 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 2 1858: 202–209 [1]
  • Walker F. 1858 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 2 1858: 280–286 [2]
  • 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 3 : 50–56 [3]
  • 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 3: 258–265 [4]
  • 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 4:217–224 [5]
  • 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 4:370–376 [6]
  • 1860 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume5:304–311 [7]
  • 1860 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 6: 357–360 [8]

Work on Mollusca and Annelida

Part of Templeton's

Ceylon. He also described two species of land-slug (Vaginula maculata and Parfnacella tennenti) from Ceylon. It was Templeton who described the extraordinary giant earthworm Megascole caeruleus
from Ceylon which is between 20 and 40 inches long and has a thickness of nearly an inch or more.

Work on birds and mammals

Bronzewinged jacana

Templeton also studied the

Dicrurus leucopyygialis the Ceylon kingcrow, and Eulabes ptilogenes, Templeton's mynah. The monkeys were studiously appraised and some of the results communicated to the Zoological Society of London. These communications, one of the monkey Cercopithecus pileatus and the loris Loris gracilis and the other on a supposed new species Semnopithecus leucoprymnus cephalopterus which turned out to be identical with Bennet's Semnopithecus nestor, are Templetons only personal contribution to the literature on the vertebrates of Ceylon. His knowledge of the smaller mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes was instead incorporated in the work of others, notably George Robert Waterhouse and his coworker Edgar Leopold Layard
who in the introduction to Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon says "I have had the advantage of consulting with Mr. Blyth and Drs. Templeton and Kelaart with each of whom i have been on terms of the closest intimacy and we mutually communicated our discoveries".

Insects named for Templeton

  • Campsosternus templetoni Westwood, 1848 (Oxynopterinae, Elateridae )
  • Chrysomela templetoni Baly, 1860 (Chrysomelinae, Chrysomelidae )
  • Sebasmia templetoni Pascoe, 1859 (Cerambycinae, Cerambycidae )
  • Pseudanophthalmus templetoni Valentine

Reptiles named for Templeton

Works

Scholia has a profile for Robert Templeton (Q3436389).
  • 1833 Figures and descriptions of Irish Arachnida and Acari . Unpublished Ms. Hope Department of Entomology Library. University of Oxford.
  • 1833a. On the spiders of the genus Dysdera Latr. with the descriptions of a new allied genus. Zoological Journal 5: 400 -406, pl. 17.[9]
  • 1834. (as C. M. ) An illustration of the structure of some of the organs of a spider, deemed the type of a new genus and proposal to be called Trichopus libratus. Magazine of Natural History 7: 10 13.[10]
  • 1834a. (as C. M. ) Illustrations of some species of British animals which are not generallv known or have hitherto not been described. Mag. Nat. Hist. 3: 129–131.[11] 1834a
  • 1838. Descriptions of a few vertebrate animals obtained at the Isle of France Proc. Zool. Soc.Lond. 2: 111–112 [12]
  • 1836. Catalogue of Irish Crustacea, Myriapoda and Arachnoida, selected from the papers of the late John Templeton Esq. Mag. Nat. Hist. . 9: 9–14 [13]
  • 1836a. A catalogue of the species annulose animals and of rayed ones found in Ireland as selected from the papers of the late J Templeton Esq. of Cranmore with localities, descriptions and illustrations. Mag. Nat. Hist. . 9: 233- 240; 301 305; 417–421; 466 -472.[14]
  • 1836b. Thysanurae Hibernicae or descriptions of such species of spring-tailed insects (Podura and Lepisma Linn. ) as have been observed in Ireland. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1: 89–98, pls. 11, 12. [15]
  • 1836c. Descriptions of some undescribed exotic Crustacea. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1: 185 198, pls. 20, 21, 22. [16]
  • 1836d. Description of a new hemipterous insect from the Atlantic Ocean. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. . 1: 230–232, pl. 22.[17]
  • 1837. Irish vertebrate animals selected from the papers of the late . John Templeton Esq., Mag. Nat. Hist . 1: (n. s. ): 403–413 403 -413.[18]
  • 1837a. Description of a new Irish crustaceous animal. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 34–40, pl. 5. .[19]
  • 1838a. Description of a new Irish crustaceous animal. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 114 120, pl. 12.[20]
  • 1840. Description of a minute crustaceous animal from the island of Mauritius. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 203 206, pl. 18.[21]
  • 1841. Description of a new strepsipterous insect. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 3: 51–56, pl. 4. [22]
  • 1841a. Positions in Ceylon. Geogr. Soc. Journ. 1841 10: 579–580.
  • 1843. Memoir on the genus Cermatia and some other exotic Annulosa. Trans. Ent Soc. Lond 3: 302- 309, pls. 16, 17. [23]
  • 1844. Description of Megascolex caeruleus Proc. Zoo. Soc. Lond. 12:89–91 [24] Froriep. ? Notizen 1845 34: 181 183.
  • 1844a. On some varieties of the monkeys of Ceylon, Cercopithecus pileatus and Loris gracilis. Proc. Zoo. Soc. Lond. 1844: 3; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1844 14: 361–362.[25][26]
  • 1844b. Communication, accompanied with drawings of Semnopithecus leucoprymnus nestor Benn. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844: 1.[27]
  • 1847. Description of some species of the lepidopterous genus Oiketicus from Ceylon. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 5: 30–40. [28]
  • 1847a. Notes upon Ceylonese Lepidoptera. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 5: 44–45. [29]
  • 1851. Description of a new species of Sorex from India. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1851 21: 106;
  • 1855 ? Ann. Nat. Hist. 15: 238–239.
  • 1858. On a new species of Vaginula from Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1: 49–50, plate 18 – Acetate of Strychnine useful to entomologists.
  • 18- List of Thysanura, Myriapoda, Scorpionidae, Cheliferidae and Phrynidae of Ceylon. Author, Colombo.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Pethiyagoda, Rohan (2007). Pearls, Spices, and Green Gold: An Illustrated History of Biodiversity Exploration in Sri Lanka. WHT Publications (Private) Limited. p. 215.
  2. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . ("Templeton", p. 263).

Further reading

  • Nash, R. and Ross, H.C.G (1980) Robert Templeton (Roy Art) Naturalist and Artist (1802–1892). Ulster Museum, 48pp + 8 plates.
  • Nash, R., Ross, H.C.G. and Vane-Wright, R. (1980) Contributions to natural history by Dr Robert Templeton, R.A., with special reference to Ceylon. Irish Naturalists' Journal 20:31–33.

External links

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