| Charles Edwin Clarke | |
| Birth Date: | 1885 |
| Birth Place: | Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Fields: | Entomology |
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Charles Edwin Clarke (1885 – 17 September 1952) was a New Zealand dentist and amateur entomologist, who specialised in collecting lepidoptera and coleoptera.
Clarke was born in 1885.[1] in Dunedin.[2] Clarke worked as a dentist as a profession, and collected specimens as a hobby. Most of Clarke's specimens were collected between the 1910s and 1940s,[3] and Clarke published findings in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand between 1920 and 1934.[4]
In 1915, a moth specimen collected by Clarke from Flagstaff Hill, Dunedin was used by George Howes to describe the moth species Hydriomena clarkei, which Howes named after Clarke.[5]
Clarke discovered and identified numerous moth species between 1920 and 1936, including Ericodesma cuneata, Heterocrossa sanctimonea and Asterivora urbana.[3] Clarke's specimens were also used by New Zealand entomologists to describe new species, including Edward Meyrick in 1924 describing Atomotricha prospiciens,[6] George Hudson to describe Asaphodes glaciata in 1925,[7] [8] and by entomologist Alfred Philpott, who described Proteodes clarkei in 1926, naming the species after Clarke.[9]
In 1929, Clarke donated much of his insect collection to Auckland War Memorial Museum.[3] Using Clarke's collections, Philpott described numerous moth species,[3] including Archyala culta, Orocrambus clarkei, Paramorpha marginata and Zapyrastra stellata.[10] [11] [12] [13]
Clarke died on 17 September 1952.[1] After his death, Clarke's collection of beetles was acquired by Auckland War Memorial Museum and the British Museum.[3]
Over 5,500 specimens by Clarke are found in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[3] In addition to these, Clarke's specimens are found in the Otago Museum,[4] Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa[14] and the British Museum.
Clarke was a close friend of New Zealand coleopterist Ernest Richard Fairburn.[4]