Entomology Like his
zoologist brother Walter, Charles devoted much of his energies to
entomology and natural history collecting. His enormous collection of some 260,000
fleas is now in the Rothschild Collection at the
Natural History Museum; he described about 500 new flea species. One of these, which he discovered and named, was the
Bubonic plague vector flea,
Xenopsylla cheopis, also known as the oriental rat flea, which he collected at
Shendi, Sudan, on an expedition in 1901, publishing his finding in 1903.
Nature conservation , built by Rothschild in 1911 as a base for field trips Rothschild is regarded as a pioneer of nature conservation in Britain, and is credited with establishing the UK's first
nature reserve when (at the age of 22) he bought
Wicken Fen, near Ely, in 1899. Wicken Fen was presented to the
National Trust but the Trust declined to take
Woodwalton Fen, near Huntingdon, which Rothschild bought in 1910, and this wetland, now a
National Nature Reserve, was kept as a private nature reserve. In 1911 Rothschild built a bungalow at Woodwalton Fen as a base for fields trips, which still stands. During his lifetime he built and managed his
Ashton Wold estate in
Northamptonshire to maximise its suitability for wildlife, especially butterflies. He was concerned about the loss of wildlife habitats, and in 1912 set up the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, the forerunner of
the Wildlife Trusts partnership. He produced 'the Rothschild List', a schedule of the best 284 wildlife sites in the country, some of which were purchased as nature reserves;
Public service As well as a Lieutenant of the City of London, Rothschild became a
JP for the county of Northamptonshire in 1902. He served as
High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1905. ==Personal life==