William Duppa Crotch

William Duppa Crotch FLS (1832–1903) was a British naturalist, specialising in Norwegian wildlife and in entomology, particularly Lepidoptera, Hemiptera and Coleoptera.

Personal life Crotch was born at Taunton, Somerset on 31 July 1832 and baptised on 23 August 1832. Crotch's parents were Reverend William Robert Crotch (1799–1877) and Elizabeth (nee Duppa, 1800–1848) of Bridgnorth, who had married on 21 July 1831. Crotch's father William Robert Crotch worked as a schoolmaster and hospital chaplain and he collected botanical specimens, which may have encouraged his children's interest in natural history. Crotch's paternal grandfather was the musician William Crotch (1775–1847).

Crotch had a younger brother named George Robert Crotch (1842 -1874) who was a respected Coleopterist. He died young of pulmonary disease, possibly exacerbated by working in Philadelphia during a harsh winter.

Crotch's mother Elizabeth died in 1848 and his father Reverend Crotch went on to marry twice more.

William Duppa Crotch married Mari Blackwell, widow of his friend Eardley Blackwell, on 5 October 1868. Crotch divided his time between living in Norway and England. and progressed to an M.A. in 1866. Crotch attempted to study for the medical profession, but did not qualify.

Between about 1861 to 1865, Crotch visited the Canary Islands twice with his brother George and collected more than 40,000 natural history specimens, mainly Coleoptera, for which they recorded 77 species occurring in the Canaries for the first time. |author=CrotchOnce again influenced by the idea of a lost Atlantean continent, Crotch suggested the theory that Lemmings were not careless of their lives by drowning themselves while migrating, but were instead still trying to migrate across the now submerged areas that their ancestors had known as dry land.