Robert Templeton

Robert Templeton (12 December 1802 – 2 June 1892 ) was an Irish naturalist, artist, and entomologist. He qualified as an army surgeon and travelled through Europe and Asia, collecting and drawing butterflies and publishing several papers on the subject. He was born at Cranmore House, Belfast. Under his father’s influence, he gained a love of nature, and started collecting specimens as a boy.

He was educated in the Belfast Academical Institution, which his father co-founded. Templeton's watercolour paintings of Ceylon butterflies are in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. Templeton, Layard and George Henry Kendrick Thwaites and later John Nietner (died 1874) contributed almost all that was known of the insect fauna of the island at the end of the first half of the nineteenth century including a privately printed list of Thysanura, Myriapoda, Scorpionidea, Cheliferidae and Phrynidae (now Amblypygi) from Ceylon which is not traced, and remarked on the habits of the large poisonous centipedes Scolopendra pallipes and S. crassa in two (published) communications to Westwood. Many of his manuscripts were lost when the clipper Memnon sank in 1851.

Templeton Insect Collection The Ceylon insects are in the Natural History Museum, London. Many are Types of the new species described by Francis Walker. Walker F. 1858 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 2 1858: 202–209 Walker F. 1858 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 2 1858: 280–286 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 3 : 50–56 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 3: 258–265 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 4:217–224 1859 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 4:370–376 1860 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume5:304–311 1860 Characters of some apparently undescribed Ceylon insects Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3rd series Volume 6: 357–360

Work on Mollusca and Annelida

Part of Templeton's Mollusca collection was described as comprising several new and rare species hitherto undescribed. Amongst others are new species of each of these genera: Achatina, Helix, Neritina, Ampullaria, Valvata, Planorbis and Melania. Robert Templeton sent back to the Belfast Museum specimens of the Ceylonese pearl mussel showing growth stages of the mussels from the famous pearl fisheries of Ceylon. He also described two species of land-slug (Vaginula maculata and Parfnacella tennenti) from Ceylon. It was Templeton who described the extraordinary giant earthworm Megascole caeruleus from Ceylon which is between 20 and 40 inches long and has a thickness of nearly an inch or more.

Work on birds and mammals

Templeton also studied the vertebrates of the island, especially the fish, birds and monkeys. Amongst the birds were five endemic species new to science. These were described by Edward Blyth in the Calcutta Journal as Athene castanotus, the chestnut-winged hawk owl; Malacocercus rufescens, the red dung thrush; Dicrurus edoliformis, the kingcrow, Dicrurus leucopyygialis the Ceylon kingcrow, and Eulabes ptilogenes, Templeton's mynah. The monkeys were studiously appraised and some of the results communicated to the Zoological Society of London. These communications, one of the monkey Cercopithecus pileatus and the loris Loris gracilis and the other on a supposed new species Semnopithecus leucoprymnus cephalopterus which turned out to be identical with Bennet's Semnopithecus nestor, are Templetons only personal contribution to the literature on the vertebrates of Ceylon. His knowledge of the smaller mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes was instead incorporated in the work of others, notably George Robert Waterhouse and his coworker Edgar Leopold Layard who in the introduction to Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon says "I have had the advantage of consulting with Mr. Blyth and Drs. Templeton and Kelaart with each of whom i have been on terms of the closest intimacy and we mutually communicated our discoveries".

Insects named for Templeton Campsosternus templetoni Westwood, 1848 (Oxynopterinae, Elateridae ) Chrysomela templetoni Baly, 1860 (Chrysomelinae, Chrysomelidae ) Sebasmia templetoni Pascoe, 1859 (Cerambycinae, Cerambycidae ) Pseudanophthalmus templetoni Valentine

Reptiles named for Templeton Oligodon templetoni, Templeton's kukri snake, junior synonym of Oligodon calamarius

Works

1833 Figures and descriptions of Irish Arachnida and Acari . Unpublished Ms. Hope Department of Entomology Library. University of Oxford. 1833a. On the spiders of the genus Dysdera Latr. with the descriptions of a new allied genus. Zoological Journal 5: 400 -406, pl. 17. 1834. (as C. M. ) An illustration of the structure of some of the organs of a spider, deemed the type of a new genus and proposal to be called Trichopus libratus. Magazine of Natural History 7: 10 13. 1834a. (as C. M. ) Illustrations of some species of British animals which are not generallv known or have hitherto not been described. Mag. Nat. Hist. 3: 129–131. 1834a 1838. Descriptions of a few vertebrate animals obtained at the Isle of France Proc. Zool. Soc.Lond. 2: 111–112 1836. Catalogue of Irish Crustacea, Myriapoda and Arachnoida, selected from the papers of the late John Templeton Esq. Mag. Nat. Hist. . 9: 9–14 1836a. A catalogue of the species annulose animals and of rayed ones found in Ireland as selected from the papers of the late J Templeton Esq. of Cranmore with localities, descriptions and illustrations. Mag. Nat. Hist. . 9: 233- 240; 301 305; 417–421; 466 -472. 1836b. Thysanurae Hibernicae or descriptions of such species of spring-tailed insects (Podura and Lepisma Linn. ) as have been observed in Ireland. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1: 89–98, pls. 11, 12. 1836c. Descriptions of some undescribed exotic Crustacea. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1: 185 198, pls. 20, 21, 22. 1836d. Description of a new hemipterous insect from the Atlantic Ocean. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. . 1: 230–232, pl. 22. 1837. Irish vertebrate animals selected from the papers of the late . John Templeton Esq., Mag. Nat. Hist . 1: (n. s. ): 403–413 403 -413. 1837a. Description of a new Irish crustaceous animal. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 34–40, pl. 5. . 1838a. Description of a new Irish crustaceous animal. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 114 120, pl. 12. 1840. Description of a minute crustaceous animal from the island of Mauritius. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 2: 203 206, pl. 18. 1841. Description of a new strepsipterous insect. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 3: 51–56, pl. 4. 1841a. Positions in Ceylon. Geogr. Soc. Journ. 1841 10: 579–580. 1843. Memoir on the genus Cermatia and some other exotic Annulosa. Trans. Ent Soc. Lond 3: 302- 309, pls. 16, 17. 1844. Description of Megascolex caeruleus Proc. Zoo. Soc. Lond. 12:89–91 Froriep. ? Notizen 1845 34: 181 183. 1844a. On some varieties of the monkeys of Ceylon, Cercopithecus pileatus and Loris gracilis. Proc. Zoo. Soc. Lond. 1844: 3; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1844 14: 361–362. 1844b. Communication, accompanied with drawings of Semnopithecus leucoprymnus nestor Benn. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844: 1. 1847. Description of some species of the lepidopterous genus Oiketicus from Ceylon. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 5: 30–40. 1847a. Notes upon Ceylonese Lepidoptera. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 5: 44–45. 1851. Description of a new species of Sorex from India. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1851 21: 106; 1855 ? Ann. Nat. Hist. 15: 238–239. 1858. On a new species of Vaginula from Ceylon. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1: 49–50, plate 18 – Acetate of Strychnine useful to entomologists. 18- List of Thysanura, Myriapoda, Scorpionidae, Cheliferidae and Phrynidae of Ceylon. Author, Colombo.