Thomas Vernon Wollaston was born in
Scotter,
Lincolnshire, England, in 1822. In 1845 he gained a B.A. degree from
Jesus College, Cambridge, and in 1847 he was made a fellow of the
Linnean Society. Wollaston spent the winter of 1847–1848 in
Madeira, returning for his Cambridge M.A. graduation in 1849. In the years to 1855 he made four long trips to Madeira. In 1857 Wollaston returned to the North Atlantic islands, investigating the natural history of the
Canary Islands – with
Richard Thomas Lowe and
John Edward Gray in 1858, returning with Lowe alone in 1859. After a long and rather mysterious absence he returned to the islands in 1866, this time to
Cape Verde Islands with Lowe and Gray. Wollaston was a frequent correspondent with the geologist
Charles Lyell and their letters are in the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library. Wollaston was also a friendly correspondent with
Charles Darwin until 1860. His last trip was to
St. Helena with his wife, and Gray. In 1869, Wollaston married Edith, the youngest daughter of his friend Joseph Shepherd. Following their visit to St. Helena she wrote "Notes on the Lepidoptera of St. Helena, with Descriptions of new Species" which included 37 new species attributed to her. In 1873, Wollaston identified the
Brachytemnus beetle. Wollaston died at
Teignmouth,
Devon, England, in 1878. His principal collection of Madeiran Coleoptera was purchased by the then Oxford University Museum (now
Oxford University Museum of Natural History) whilst the
British Museum purchased his principal collection of Canarian Coleoptera. They are now in the
Natural History Museum. Both museums contain duplicate specimens from respective secondary collections. Material can also be found
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology,
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. ==Selected works==