In 1841, following the death of William Bainbridge, he became a curator of the collections and the library of the Entomological Society of London.

As an engraver he produced copies based on the works of Turner, Constable and David Roberts.

He also worked with Gray arranging Hymenoptera in the British Museum.

He then gave up his art work but produced the plates for Wollaston's Insecta Maderensia (1854) and for papers in the Transactions of the Entomological Society.

Many of these bees he named including Bombus frigidus, Halictus coriaceus, and Nomia nasalis, which he discovered.