John Hellins

John Hellins (15 May 1829 – 9 May 1887) was a prison chaplain, school teacher, and entomologist well known in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for his seminal work on the early stages (eggs, larvae and pupae) of the butterflies and moths of Great Britain. He was the grandson of John Hellins (–1827) the astronomer.

Life and works Hellins was born in Bow, Devon, the son of William Brock Hellins, a prison chaplain, and his wife, Elizabeth. He attended the University of Oxford as a bible scholar at All Souls College (B.A. 1851, then routinely upgraded to M.A.), becoming an ordained Church of England deacon (1852) and priest (1854); he was a Second Master at Exeter Grammar School, before becoming (Anglican) Chaplain to the Devon County Prison in Exeter in 1859, replacing his recently deceased father in the post. Many of these descriptions were published, under their two separate names, in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. Over the years they then built up such a large portfolio of descriptions and paintings, that they agreed to collaborate on a fully illustrated book on British caterpillars (along with eggs and pupae). By 1873 they had covered 850 species, and Buckler had amassed over 5000 drawings and paintings. This included descriptions by Hellins, constituting up to a third of the work, and by modern standards he would have been featured as a co-author (particularly in the earlier volumes). Perhaps a natural and priestly modesty moved him to decline co-authorship, or perhaps an overwhelming urge to give of himself in memory of his recently deceased friend, whom he was not long to survive. As it is, although in the text the editor has carefully noted the authorship of the individual descriptions, the work is normally cited as being solely by Buckler, and Hellins’ fame somewhat declined over the years. It is notable however that he was, with Buckler, the joint dedicatee of a popular book on Lepidoptera by Stainton, and that his descriptions of caterpillars continued to be attributed to him up to the middle of the twentieth century.

Hellins exchanged letters with Charles Darwin on the question of the sex ratio in moths; and kept a continuous entomological diary from 1857 to his death in 1887 (whereabouts currently unknown).

Legacy The African plume moth genus Hellinsia was named in his honour by J.W. Tutt in 1905.

Publications Numerous descriptions of individual species in W Buckler (edited by H.T. Stainton) The larvae of the British butterflies and moths. Volumes 1–5. London, Ray Society (1886–1893). See The larvæ of the British butterflies and moths

Further descriptions of individual species in W Buckler (edited by G.T. Porritt) The larvae of the British butterflies and moths. Volumes 6–9 London, Ray Society (1895–1901). See The larvæ of the British butterflies and moths

Hellins’ (and Buckler's) individual descriptions of larvae in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine volumes 1–18 and elsewhere, are listed in

Hellins published papers on other groups of insects (e.g. Coleoptera, Hemiptera), which have not been fully listed, in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine during the 1860s and 1870s that continue to be cited in the second millennium (https://scholar.google.co.uk)