Benjamin Dann Walsh was an English-born American entomologist.
Background
Benjamin Dann Walsh was born in Clapton, London, England, the son of Benjamin Walsh. He was of a well-to-do family; one of his brothers became a clergyman and another, editor of the Field, London, and author of a standard treatise on the horse.
Education
Benjamin was intended for the church, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received the degree of B. A. in 1831, became a fellow in 1833, and in 1834 was awarded the degree of M. A. He resigned the fellowship, however, and declined to follow the study of divinity.
Career
For some years he led a literary life, writing for Blackwood's Magazine, and in 1837 publishing The Comedies of Aristophanes, Translated into Corresponding English Metres. At the age of thirty emigrated to the United States, expecting to settle in Chicago. He finally made his home in Henry County, Ill. , near the town of Cambridge, where for thirteen years he engaged in farming. He then moved to the town of Rock Island, where he carried on a successful lumber business for seven years more. In England he had known and worked with Charles Darwin, who had aroused his interest in natural history. Retiring from business about 1858, he devoted the rest of his life to entomology. He wrote many articles for the agricultural newspapers and published a number of admirable articles in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History and in the Transactions of the American Entomological Society. These papers were of very high rank and attracted the attention of scientific men both in America and in Europe. He became, also, one of the editors of a journal started in Philadelphia known as the Practical Entomologist. His ability as an incisive writer, his breadth of knowledge, and his power to prophesy accurately the future of economic entomology were extraordinary. He often pointed out what the states and the federal government should do against the certainty that insect ravages would increase. He was the first to show that American farmers were planting their crops in such a way as to facilitate the multiplication of insects, and was one of the first to suggest the introduction of foreign parasites and natural enemies of imported pests. His witty and vigorous invective against charlatanistic suggestions as to remedies attracted great attention. In 1868, with Charles V. Riley, he founded and edited the American Entomologist. His death occurred in the following year as the result of a railway accident near Rock Island. Walsh's bibliography shows 385 titles of individual record and 478 in co-authorship with Riley. The latter titles, however, are mainly those of short notes and answers to correspondents in the columns of the American Entomologist. His longer scientific papers were sound and in many respects ahead of his time. He was an early adherent of the doctrine of evolution, and in 1864 published a long paper, "On Certain Entomological Speculations of the New England School of Naturalists" (Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, vol. III), in which he attacked the anti-evolutionary views of Agassiz and Dana. In 1867 he was appointed state entomologist of Illinois, and assumed the duties of that position, although his appointment was not confirmed until the next biennial session of the legislature. He was the second state entomologist to be appointed, Asa Fitch of New York being the first. Walsh's sole report was published in the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for 1867.