Norman Hickin

Norman Ernest Hickin (1910–1990) was an English entomologist and author, with a professional interest in insect pests, having worked for most of his career for Rentokil. He collected the types of several species new to science.

Early life

Norman Hickin was born in 1910 in Aston, Warwickshire, and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Aston and then Birmingham's Central Technical College, from where he graduated in 1936 with a BSc. in zoology with special entomology. He gained a PhD from London University in 1940, on an externship, with a thesis on spider beetles (Ptinidae).

alt=Drawing of a hand-held, hand-pumped spraying device, with a very long rubber tube ending in a fine nozzle. The lower half of the page contains instructions for use, which cannot be read due to low resolution.

He was also a consultant to the British Wood Preserving Association, and an expert witness for court cases about termites, carpet moths, and other insect damage. ), technical books about insect pests, and a number of popular books and newspaper columns on insects and general natural history, especially relating to the Wyre Forest, where he had a cottage. His writing was published both locally, in the Kidderminster Shuttle and more widely, in titles including The Irish Times and New Scientist. He illustrated some of his own works, as a panellist on Domestic Forum in 1961, discussing gardening, and in his own television programme about the Wyre Forest, One Man's Forest, broadcast posthumously in 1991.

Hicking collected specimens in various countries, for collections including those of Ewell Technical College and the British Natural History Museum, several of which were insect types. The Charles Darwin Foundation, which managed the station, was in turn critical of Hickin.

Hickin's autobiography, Forest Refreshed: Autobiographical Notes of a Biologist, was published in 1965.

He was a founding member, in 1964, of the Society of Wildlife Artists. His correspondence with Colbran J. Wainwright is held by the Royal Entomological Society London.

alt=hand-written text reading "Pupae of Green Hairstreak reared from Dromreagh adults. Changed to pupae 31 July 1978"

Seventy boxes of his Irish lepidoptera specimens, formerly in the possession of his daughter Verney, were offered for sale online in the 2020s.

Selected bibliography

(with "4 colour plates and b/w line drawings by the author")

As illustrator