W. Lens Aldous

William Lens Aldous (baptized 29 September 1792 – 19 November 1878)[1] was a British illustrator who reproduced findings of the early workers in microscopy, and an early member of the Royal Microscopical Society.

[3] His coloured lithograph, 'Head of a Flea', was presented to the Entomological Society of London on 7 May 1838, who adopted it for a poster.

Reade's letters to his contemporaries describe how Aldous began his illustrations of microscopy with this illustration, after a drawing, “highly magnified figure of the head of a flea” (1837), derived from his experiments in microscopic photography.

[3] Other works included a portrait of the microscopist and histologist John Thomas Quekett.

[4] Aldous died in St Leonards-on-Sea[5][6][7] and was buried in Hastings Cemetery.