Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buckler, William
BUCKLER, WILLIAM (1814–1884), entomologist, was born 13 Sept. 1814, at Newport, Isle of Wight. He was the son of William, brother to John Buckler, F.S.A. [q. v.] He showed much taste for drawing; became a student of the Royal Academy, and from 1836 to 1856 exhibited sixty-two pictures, chiefly portraits in water-colour. About 1848 he settled at Emsworth, Hampshire, and took to entomology for an amusement. In 1857 he began to contribute drawings of the larvæ of the Tineinæ to the ‘Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,’ to which he had previously contributed some articles. After three years, in the course of which he sent about 120 figures, he found the labour too great. He continued his studies and contributed descriptions of larvæ to the ‘Weekly Entomologist’ in 1862, and afterwards to the ‘Entomologist's Monthly Magazine.’ He was preparing a work on the larvæ of the Macro-Lepidoptera of Great Britain. He had made at least 5,000 careful drawings by 1873, figuring more than 850 species in various stages of growth. He was much inconvenienced by ‘writer's cramp,’ and found relief in cabinet work. His sight was not good enough for collecting, and all his work was done at home with a magnifying lens. His friend, the Rev. J. Hellins, sent him specimens in return for drawings. After his sixty-eighth birthday he began to learn German to be able to correspond with foreign devotees of entomology. He died 9 Jan. 1884.
[Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, vol. xx.]