1. Octavius Pickard-Cambridge FRS was an English clergyman and zoologist.
20 Facts About Octavius Pickard-Cambridge
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was a keen arachnologist who described and named more than 900 species of spider from a large collection that he made with contributions sent to him by correspondents from around the world.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was tutored at home by the poet William Barnes, after failing to receive admission to Winchester College.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge learned to play the violin from Sidney Smith.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge then studied law in London before theology at the University of Durham.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was very active and made many friends in this period.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge served as steward at steeplechases and presided over the college choral society.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge received a BA in 1858 and an MA in 1859.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge took part in debates on evolution and sided with Charles Darwin's views.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge corresponded with Darwin on various matters, and with Alfred Russel Wallace, who quoted one of his letters on his 1889 book Darwinism.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was interested in natural history from an early age and his first publication was made in 1853 in The Zoologist.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge assisted Blackwall between 1861 and 1864 in the publication of Blackwell's great work, British and Irish Spiders.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge collected birds in Egypt and began a communication with Alfred Newton, introduced by Frederick Bond.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge travelled again in 1865 with Bradshaw, this time meeting Herrich-Schaffer in Regensburg and in Nurenberg, he met Ludwig Koch and spent several days examining the spider collections made by him and his father.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge published extensively on spiders between 1859 and his death in 1917, his major work being the volume on arachnids in the Biologia Centrali-Americana between 1883 and 1902.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge became a world authority on spiders, describing 932 new species including the Costa Rican redleg tarantula and the Sydney funnel-web spider.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge married Rose Wallace on 19 April 1866 after meeting her when she was travelling through Europe with an aunt and sister.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge first saw her in Paris where Pickard-Cambridge was tutoring a pupil, though he did not speak to her there, and they were finally introduced in Venice.
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Octavius' nephew, Frederick Octavius Pickard-Cambridge, was a noted arachnologist.
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Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 9 September 1887.