Charles Frost (1853?–1915) was an Australian author and collector of reptiles, frequently associated with the works of

Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas Arthur Henry Shakespeare Lucas (7 May 1853 – 10 June 1936) was an English-born schoolmaster, scientist and publisher who lived in Australia for over fifty years, and became the most renowned writer on Algae after William Henry Harvey Early lif ...

Biography

An account of the biographical details of Frost's life were published as an anonymous obituary.

Works

Frost published descriptions of new taxa with the more well known author

and undertook collecting expeditions to obtain specimens of reptiles, birds and spiders. Most of the publications and work Frost undertook was through societies in Victoria, although he is absent from membership of the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (fou ...

. He had no formal education in the natural sciences, however, Frost was a member of the Linnean Society and used the post-nominal F.L.S. in his published works. As co-author he assisted in compiling catalogues and descriptions of reptiles that became standard sources for the contemporary research of herpetology. He was the sole author of several short works, including two papers in 1888 and 1890 on the results of his experiments on the toxicity of ''

Latrodectus ''Latrodectus'' is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. Howeve ...

'' species in Victoria, known as the red-back spider, prompted by claims of T. S. Ralph in his presentation on the New Zealand ''

Latrodectus katipo ''Latrodectus'' is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. Howeve ...

'' at an earlier meeting of the Victorian Naturalist Society. The author maintained collections of specimens until his death, when they were donated to a museum; the specimens were not labelled with the important information concerning the locality in which they were collected. His name is commemorated in the names of the lizard ''

Lerista frosti ''Lerista frosti'', also known commonly as the Centralian slider and Frost's lerista, is a small species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is native to Central Australia. Taxonomy A description of the species was presented to the ...

'' and frog ''

Philoria frosti The Baw Baw frog (''Philoria frosti'') is a critically endangered species of Australian frog as categorised on the IUCN Red List and listed under the ''Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988)''. It has suffered a decline in population, mostly ...

''.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , last1 = Beolens , first1 = Bo , last2 = Watkins , first2 = Michael , last3 = Grayson , first3 = Michael , name-list-style=amp , title=The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJY3BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 , date=2013 , publisher=Pelagic Publishing , isbn=978-1-907807-42-8 , page=73 {{cite book , last1 = Beolens , first1 = Bo , last2 = Watkins , first2 = Michael , last3 = Grayson , first3 = Michael , name-list-style=amp , title=The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ovZoFyLhzkC&pg=PT94 , date=2011 , publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press , location=Baltimore , isbn=978-1-4214-0135-5 , pages=xiii + 296 pp.("Frost, C.", p. 94). {{cite journal , last1=Shea , first1=G.M. , authorlink1=Glenn M. Shea , title=The Horn expedition (1894) to Central Australia: New directions in Australian herpetology , journal=Bonn Zoological Bulletin , date=November 2004 , volume=52 , issue=3,4 , pages=245–273 , url=http://zoologicalbulletin.de/articles/bzb-2000-2009/132-volume-52-34-november-2004 {{cite journal , last1=Frost , first1=C. , title=Experiments on the Victorian "Katipo" , journal=The Victorian Naturalist , date=1888 , volume=5 , pages=56–57 , url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30019038 , publisher=Field Naturalists Club of Victoria 1915 deaths Zoological collectors Australian herpetologists Year of birth uncertain