Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1 September 1813 – 20 June 1893) was an English

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

mainly interested in

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

Biography

He was born in

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

, Cornwall and trained at

St. Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Ra ...

, London. Appointed surgeon in the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

he served on Australian,

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the term ''West Indian'' in 1597 described the indigenous inhabitants of the West In ...

and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

stations. He married a Miss Mary Glasson of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and settled at

Trewhiddle Trewhiddle is a small settlement in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies in the civil parish of Pentewan Valley and the parish, ecclesiastical parish of St Austell. The nearest town is St Austell, approximately one mile to the north. ...

near

St Austell Saint Austell (, ; ) is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. At the 2021 Census in the United Kingdom, census it had a population of 20,900. History St Austell was a village centred ...

where his wife's property produced

china clay Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedron, tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen ...

. Widowed in 1851 he settled in London devoting himself to

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

in particular. The results of collecting trips to Europe, North Africa and the Lower Amazons were poor and Pascoe worked mainly on insects collected by others. His entomological papers listed and described species collected by

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 pap ...

(in ''Longicornia Malayana''),

Robert Templeton Robert Templeton (12 December 1802 – 2 June 1892) was a natural history, naturalist, artist, and entomologist, and was born at Cranmore House, Belfast, Ireland. Life and work Robert Templeton was the son of the botanist John Templeton (B ...

and other assiduous collectors but not prolific writers on

systematic Systematic may refer to: Science * Short for systematic error * Systematic fault * Systematic bias, errors that are introduced by an inaccuracy inherent to the system Economy * Systematic trading, a way of defining trade goals, risk control ...

entomology. He became a Fellow of the Entomological Society in 1854, was president from 1864 to 1865, a Member of the

Société Entomologique de France Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy p ...

and belonged to the Belgian and

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

Societies. He was also a Fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

(elected 1852) and was on the Council of the

Ray Society The Ray Society is a scientific text publication society that publishes works devoted principally to British flora and fauna. As of 2019, it had published 181 volumes. Its publications are predominantly academic works of interest to naturalists, zo ...

. His 2,500

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

are in the

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

, London.

Evolution

Pascoe accepted the fact of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

but was an opponent to

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

. Pascoe's 1890 book ''The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species'' was an attack on natural selection. It received a lengthy review in the ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' journal by

Raphael Meldola Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15. Life Born in Islington, London, he was descended from Raphael Me ...

who disagreed with Pascoe's criticisms but noted the work should be taken seriously as Pascoe was a respected systematic entomologist.

Works

*1858 On new genera and species of longicorn Coleoptera. Part III ''Trans. Entomol. Soc. London'', (2)4:236–266. *1859 On some new genera and species of longicorn Coleoptera. Part IV.''Trans.Entomol. Soc. London'', (2)5:12–61. *1860 Notices of new or little-known genera and species of Coleoptera. ''J.Entomol''., 1(1):36–64. *1860 Notices of new or little-known genera and species of Coleoptera, pt.II. ''J. Entomol''., 1(2):98–131. *1862 Notices of new or little-known genera and species of Coleoptera. ''J.Entomol''., 1:319–370. *1864–186
Longicornia Malayana
or a descriptive catalogue of the species of the three longicorn families Lamiidae, Cerambycidae and Prionidae collected by Mr. A. R. Wallace in the Malay Archipelago. ''Trans. Entomol. Soc. London'', (3)3:1-712. *1866 List of the Longicornia collected by the late Mr. P. Bouchard, at Santa Marta. ''Trans. Entomol. Soc. London'', 5(3):279–296. *1867 Diagnostic characters of some new genera and species of Prionidae.''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist''., (3)19:410–413 *1875 Notes on Coleoptera, with descriptions of new genera and species. Part III. ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist''., (4)15:59–73. *1884 Notes on Natural Selection and the Origin of Species. Taylor & Francis. *1885 List of British Vertebrate Animals. Taylor & Francis. *1890 The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species. Gurney & Jackson.

References

*
Obituary in ''Natural science: a monthly review of scientific progress''
Volume 3, 1893: S. 159 * A. Boucard Obituary in ''The Humming Bird. A Quarterly, Artistic and Industrial Review''. Volume 5. Spring Vale, 1895: S. 12–13 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pascoe, Francis Polkinghorne Fellows of the Linnean Society of London 1813 births 1893 deaths English scientists English coleopterists Non-Darwinian evolution People from Penzance Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society