James Charles Dale (13 December 1791 – 6 February 1872) was an English naturalist who devoted almost all of his adult life to entomology.

Late in life, 28 December 1848, at Eltham Kent he married for the first time Lucy Marianne (1821–1875), eldest sister of Dr Henry Wylde.

They were to have two sons, Charles William Dale (1851–1906) best known as a lepidopterist and dipterist but he also published notes on other insects including coleoptera, and Edward Robert Dale (1853–1903) who described himself as an entomologist and electrical engineer when the use of electricity was still in its infancy.

On one occasion a cloud of butterflies was released into Dale's magistrate court.

Included in the latter are four drawers of Thomas Vernon Wollaston beetles from Madeira, Cape Verde, Canary Islands and St. Helena.