Margaret Fountaine | |
|---|---|
 Fountaine circa 1890 | |
| Born | Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine 16 May 1862 Norfolk, England |
| Died | 21 April 1940 (aged 77) |
| Citizenship | British |
| Known for | diarist |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | lepidopterist |
Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (16 May 1862 – 21 April 1940),[1] was a Victorian lepidopterist (a person interested in butterflies and moths), natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation.[2] She is also known for her personal diaries, which were edited into two volumes by W.F. Cater for the popular market and published posthumously.
Fountaine was an accomplished natural history illustrator and had a great love and knowledge of butterflies, travelling and collecting extensively through Europe, South Africa, India, Tibet, America, Australia and the West Indies, publishing numerous papers on her work. She raised many of the butterflies from eggs or caterpillars, producing specimens of great quality, 22,000 of which are housed at the Norwich Castle Museum and known as the Fountaine-Neimy Collection. Her four sketch books of butterfly life-cycles are held at the Natural History Museum in London. The butterfly genus Fountainea was named in her honour.
- ^ Lepidopterology.com | Almanac | Years ago Archived 19 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Margaret Fountaine". Norfolk Women in History. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2020.