Robert Herbert Carcasson (5 December 1918, in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, UK – 23 September 1982, in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, B.C., Canada) was an English

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who specialised in

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

, but also authored two field guides to tropical fishes. He joined the Coryndon Museum,

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, as senior entomologist in 1956. He then became its director, under the museum's new name of the

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

from 1961 to 1968. During this time he was awarded a PhD for his studies on African

hawkmoths The Sphingidae are a family of moths ( Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, b ...

. From 1969 to 1971 he was Chief Curator of the Centennial Museum,

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada. In 1972 he travelled in

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

and East Africa for production of two field guides to coral reef fish of the Indo-Pacific region. From 1973 to 1979 he was Curator of Entomology at the Museum of British Columbia. He died of cancer. Somewhat a

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

, he was fluent in a number of languages, and produced the illustrations to a number of his works, culminating in hundreds of colour and line drawings of fishes for his reef fish field guides.

Works

*(1961) "The

Acraea Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology. *Acraea, the naiad daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosymn ...

butterflies of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

(Lepidoptera, Acraeidae)". ''Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society'' Special Supplement No 8 *(1963) "The Milkweed butterflies of East Africa (Lepidoptera, Danaidae)". ''Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society'' volume XXIV No.2 (106) *(1964) "A preliminary survey of the zoogeography of African butterflies". ''East African Wildlife Journal'' 2: 122-157. *(1968) ''The

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths (Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, bu ...

(Hawk Moths) of Eastern Africa''. PhD thesis. pp. 233. Nairobi:

University of East Africa The University of East Africa was established on 29 June 1963"Universities: East Africa", ''A Historical Companion To Postcolonial Thought In English'' (Columbia University Press, 2005) Prem Poddar and David Johnson, eds., p. 489. and served Keny ...

. *(1975) ''The

Swallowtail Butterflies Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful Butterfly, butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes ...

of East Africa (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae)''. E. W. Classey Ltd
pdf
*(1976) ''Revised Catalogue of the African Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) with Descriptions of the East African Species''. Second edition. Faringdon, Oxen: E.W. Classey Ltd. *(1977) ''A field guide to the reef fishes of tropical Australia and the Indo-Pacific region''. London: Collins. *(1977) ''A field guide to the coral reef fishes of the Indian and West Pacific Oceans''. London: Collins. *(1980) ''Collins Handguide to the Butterflies of Africa''.

Collins Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...

: London A furthe
collection of Carcasson's works
may be found in the

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...

online.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carcasson, Robert Herbert English lepidopterists 1918 births 1982 deaths 20th-century British zoologists British expatriates in Canada

Works

Further reading

References