Crotch, George Robert

George Crotch was born in Cambridge in 1842 and obtained his undergraduate education at Cambridge University. While still a student he was deeply involved in collecting insects. By the time he received an M.A. degree (1863) he had concentrated on Coleoptera, and he published a Catalogue of British Coleoptera. The next year he collected insects in the Canary Islands and, on return to England, obtained a job in the university library at Cambridge. In 1865 and 1870 he made collecting trips to Spain, and meanwhile had published several entomological papers including works on Coccinellidae and Erotylidae and had become sub-editor of Zoological Record. In the autumn of 1872 he sailed to the USA and traveled overland to California in the spring of 1873. A collecting expedition to British Columbia, Oregon and parts of California followed. In the autumn of 1873 he returned to Philadelphia (his point of arrival in the USA), having accepted an appointment from Louis Agassiz to curate insects in...