Obituary:William Wing

WILLIAM WING, ESQ., F.L.S., SECRETARY OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, HAS left a blank that will not be easily supplied. As an entomological artist he had few rivals. It was at the age of fifteen that he first turned his attention to entomology, and, in the course of a few years, he succeeded in forming an extensive collection of British lepidoptera, hymenoptera, &c.A talent for drawing was early developed, and this, combined with his predilections for natural history, soon led to his being employed at that great national establishment, the British Museum. Many will remember that their first recollection of Mr. Wing is as a slight, rather delicate youth, assiduously plying his pencil in the entomological room of the British Museum. He lithographed a number of plates for the British Museum Catalogues, and also for the Transactions of the Entomological and Linnean Societies. He was naturally very retiring, and though possessed of a great amount of knowledge on a variety of subjects, he never used it for the purpose of display; and few who had not opportunities of drawing him out, would have suspected the extent of his information.Latterly his attention had been more particularly directed to making drawings of the larvae of the microlepidoptera, and upwards of 200 of these representations, which, for accuracy and life-likeness, have never been surpassed, testify to his industry and perseverance.It was just as he was entering on the new career of usefulness, indicated by the promised "Natural History of the Tineina," that he was smitten with an incurable disease (diabetes), which speedily assumed such a serious aspect, that great fears were entertained that he would sink under it last spring;; fortunately, prompt medical attendance, together with his own habitual cheerfulness of disposition, succeeded in restoring him to health; and during this temporary prolongation of life he was enabled to execute the plates to Mr. Stainton's volume of the "Insecta Britannica." Mr. Wing's death occurred on the 9th of January, in the 28th year of his age.