Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists

Michael Darby

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M

M., H.R.

These initials appear on a specimen of Acanthocinus aedilis in the Dyson Perrins collection at Birmingham Museum. (MD 2/04)

M., M.

These initials appear on Coleoptera from Australia in the foreign collection at Oldham (Information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

McCRAE, W.

This name appears on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (Information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

McGREGOR, Thomas M.

Worked as a printer in Perth before emigrating to Australia in c. 1896. The large beetle collection in Perth Museum was primarily his work (and Francis Buchanan White's). A photograph and some correspondence (includes T. Hudson Beare?) is associated with it. (Information from Michael Taylor).

1883-84. Corresponding Member of the Dutch Entomological Society and a Knight of the Netherlands' Lion. (MD 2/04)

MACKEN

Mentioned in Janson diary at Cambridge, e.g. July 1921. (MD 2/04)

MACKENNON, Neil

This name appears on specimens in the amalgamated collection at Manchester. (MD 2/04)

MACKENZIE, D.

Gave Coleoptera caught in Glasgow to the Museum there in 1899 (1899-129). (MD 2/04)

MACKINTOSH, G.H.

Former lecturer in Agricultural Zoology at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture, Aberdeen. 867 beetles collected by Mackintosh are in the College collection and cover the period 1949-1957. (Fenscore). (MD 2/04)

MACLEAY, Alexander (24 June 1767 - 1848)

Born in county of Ross of an ancient Scottish family. His father was Provost of Wick and a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Caithness. Took up various public positions including, in 1795, Chief Clerk in the Prisoners of War Office. In 1797 he was Head of the Correspondence Department of the Transport Board and in 1806 Secretary of the Board. In 1825 he was selected by Earl Bathurst to be Colonial Secretary to the Government of New South Wales and left for Australia. There he rose to become first Speaker of the Legislative Council, from which he retired in 1846. He married early in life and had 17 children. He died in Sydney where he helped to found the Museum.

Before leaving England Macleay gave '27 years of unremitted and unrequited labour' to the Linnean Society. This included taking on the Secretaryship from his friend Thomas Marsham in 1798. His chief natural history interest was entomology and he is recorded to have had 'the finest and most extensive collection then existing of any private individual in England'. This included the British Collection of John Curtis now housed in Melbourne. Macleay is not recorded to have published on entomology, but there is MS correspondence, etc. in the Linnean Society. Stephens (1828) p. 2 refers to him as 'my friend' and talks about his philosophical views on insect structure and arrangement.

Chalmers-Hunt (1976) notes that Macleay was present at the sale of Dru Drury's collection (p. 4) and that he bought many of the lots at the Francillon sale which included many Fabrician as well as Donovan types (pp. 5-6). Macleay himself sold 122 lots of duplicate insects on 9 July 1814 at King and Lochee, the 4 pp. catalogue is in the HDO library.

FRS from 1809.

There is a reference to him not previously noticed in Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, 3, n.d. [c.1880], p. 275. (MD 2/04)

MACLEAY, Sir William John (13 June 1820 - 7 December 1891)

Born in Scotland and emigrated to New South Wales in 1839. Member of the Legislative Assembly there from 1854-1874. Knighted in 1889. In 1874 he carried out a scientific expedition to New Guinea chiefly at his own expense. Much of his entomological work in Australia was based on Coleoptera on which he published many papers.

Founder and first President of the Entomological Society of New South Wales and of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

There are twelve obituary and other notices in Gilbert (1977) p. 240. (MD 2/04)

MACLEAY, William Sharp (21 July 1792 - 26 January 1865)

Born in London the eldest son of Alexander Macleay (see above). Published Horae Entomologicae between 1819-1821 (some articles subsequently published separately e.g. 'Annulosa Javanica or an attempt to illustrate the natural affinities and analogies of the insects collected in Java by T. Horsfield. Coleoptera', 1825. pp. 50 and 2 plates), and some notes on insects in other publications including 'Remarks on the devastation occasioned by Hylobius abietis in fir plantations' (Zool. Journal, 1824-25, pp. 444-448) and several notes in Trans. LSL. Subsequently emigrated to Australia where he died (Sydney).

Smith (1986) records that Macleay sent many insects to Hope (c.1842) together with 8 beetles from Australia, and that there are also in the HDO letters from Macleay to Hope (1839-43) and Westwood (1833) and a list of Annulosa sent to Hope.

Gilbert (1977) lists 10 obituary and other notices. (MD 2/04)

McNAB, W.R.

A Doctor who published 'Occurrence of Lathridius filum Aube; a species new to Britain' in EMM, 3, 1866, p. 46. Gave his address as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Mentioned in the Janson diary at Cambridge e.g. Aug 1869. Two specimens of Mormolyce phyllodes from Java were given by him to the RSM in 1861. (MD 2/04)

McNAUGHT

A collection of beetles and Lepidoptera made by McNaught before 1970 is in Bury Art Gallery and Museum (Acc. No. 1907.13). (Fenscore). (MD 2/04)

MACTAGGART, J.

Gave several collections of beetles to the RSM starting with 83 specimens from Aberdour in 1900 (1900-103). (MD 2/04)

MANDER, P. Brian

Contributed Coleoptera to the collection at Sheffield Museum between 1971-72. (Information from Steve Garland). (MD 2/04)

MANDERS, Neville (1857 - 1915)

A Colonel in the army who died 'gloriously' at Gallipoli. Mainly a Lepidopterist but Fowler (1912) records that he collected Paussidae in Burma.

A collection of Lepidoptera alone was sold by Stevens on 20-21 June 1916.

FESL 1887-1915. (MD 2/04)

MARKWICK, William

Published 'Observations on the Curculio trifolii or Clover weevil.... With additional remarks by Thomas Marsham' in Trans. LSL, 6, 1802, pp. 142-146. (MD 2/04)

MARQUAND, Ernest David (1848 -1918)

Born in Guernsey and trained as a solicitor. Stayed in Guernsey only intermittently, living at different times in the USA, Paris, Alderney, London, Devon, Hampshire and Cornwall. Awarded a bonze medal by the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Soc. for an essay on Cornish beetles. Also interested in botany and Hymenoptera. Died at Totnes.

A collection of 5000 beetles made by Marquand is in the Guille-Alles Museum, Guernsey, originally in a 12 drawer cabinet and 20 store boxes, together with mss (4 pages). The collection may have been in the possession of W.A. Luff before his death in 1910. Includes material from E. Saunders who also did dets for him, J.B. Bridgman and Kempwelch (Fenscore).

There is an obituary by B.T. Rowswell in Trans. Guernsey Soc. Nat. Sci. 8, 1918, pp. 83-90, including a bibliography, which I have not seen. He is also referred to in J. Biol. Curation, 1, pp. 5-19 . (MD 2/04) (MD 2/04)

MARRINER, Thomas Frederick (1890? - 1942?)

Naturalist who lived all his life in Carlisle and had a special interest in Coleoptera, particularly ladybirds. Collected from 1904 mainly in Cumberland. He is recorded to have had some sort of breakdown in 1934 but was recovering in 1936. His first publication on beetles appears to have been 'Coccinella 11 punctata ab. Lemani' in ERJV, 35, 1923, p. 57. This was followed by 'The Two Spot Ladybird' (Discovery, 1926, pp. 407-409); 'A preliminary account of the life history of Coccinella 11-punctata' (Trans. ESL, 75, 1927, pp. 47-52); 'Coccinellid hybrids: A provoked communication' (ERJV, 40, 1928, pp. 176-177); 'A pale Anatis ocellata' (ibid., 41, 1929, pp. 183-184); 'A Coccinellid parasite' (Naturalist, 1932, pp. 221-222); 'The Cumberland Chrysomelidae' (ERJV, 50, 1938, pp. 63-67) and two notes on the 'Coleoptera of Easton' (ibid., 51, 1939, pp. 122-127 and 52, 1940, p. 11).

A collection of Coleoptera made by Marriner, in 11 drawers, is in the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. David Sheppard, who amalgamated some of Marriner's insects when working in the Museum, tells me that this was given in 1942, when it occupied 14 store boxes, (in which the specimens were recorded to be 'mouldy') and a separate box given by Mrs Little in 1948 (in which many of the specimens were broken and only some were kept). The first included the type of Coccinella 10-punctata ab. inornata. (I am grateful to David Sheppard for this information).

FRESL from 17 March 1920. (MD 2/04)

MARRIOT

There are beetles labelled 'ex coll. Marriott' in the general collection at Birmingham Museum. (MD 2/04)

MARSH, J.G.

Specimens collected by Marsh are incorporated in the P.B. Mason collection at Bolton. He is mentioned in Janson diary at Cambridge e.g. July 1869. (MD 2/04)

MARSHALL, Sir Guy Anstruther Knox (20 December 1871 - 8 April 1959)

Born in Amritsar, India, where his father was a District Judge and his uncle Chief Engineer and Secretary to the Government of the Punjab. Educated at a prep school in Margate and at Charterhouse School. In 1891, after failing his examinations for the Indian Civil Service, he sailed to Durban, South Africa. After various exploits, in 1901 he was working as Co-manager in the Salisbury District and Estates Company. It was at this time that he met and subsequently employed C.F. Swynnerton, well known for his tse-tse fly work. In 1907 he was appointed Curator of the Sarawak Museum, but sudden illness prevented him from taking up the post, and in 1909 he was appointed Scientific Secretary to the new Entomological Research Committee (Tropical Africa). In this position Marshall developed the organisation so that it became the model for several others elsewhere in the world. He initiated the Bulletin of Entomological Research and the Review of Applied Entomology, and it was due to his enthusiasm that the Imperial Bureau of Entomology (now the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau) was established in 1913. Between the Wars he advised the Colonial Office on entomological matters. Later he founded one of the first commercial companies devoted to pest control. After retiring in 1942 he continued to work at the NHM until his death.

Marshall's interest in entomology was undoubtedly fostered by his father and uncle who were both keen naturalists. At his prep school the German master stimulated an interest in Lepidoptera, and when he joined Charterhouse this had developed to include beetles. His early work in Africa centred on mimicry in particular and, after writing a number of short notes, in 1902 he published a lengthy study with E.B. Poulton on this subject in Trans. ESL, 35, pp. 287-584 detailing five years' research. From this date on, however, almost all his work and publications, amounting to 204 papers and a volume in the FBI series, were focussed on the Curculionidae of which he described numerous new species from all over the world.

Smith (1986) p. 135 records that there are various insects of all orders in the HDO from South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (1896-1906) together with a series of types and syntypes of the weevils described in Proc. ZSL 1906. p. 911. The NHM houses a loose-leaf MS recording data on the capture of South African Coleoptera 1891-1898.

FRESL 1895-1959 (Hon.). Council 1907-8, 1919-21, 1924-6, 1928-30, 1932-4, 1938-40, 1945-7; Vice President 1919, 1924, 1932. FRS 1923. C.M.G. 1920; Knighted 1930; K.C.M.G. 1942. Member of many foreign entomological and other societies.

Gilbert (1977) lists six obituary and other notices, the most detailed being by W.R. Thomson in Biogr. Mem. Fellows. R. Soc., 6, 1969, pp. 169-181, which also includes a portrait and full bibliography (and from which much of the above is taken). (MD 2/04)

MARSHALL, James

Gave foreign (St Kitts, West Indies) Lepidoptera and Coleoptera to Glasgow Museum in 1891 (1891-23). Lived at 143 Wellington St. Glasgow. (MD 2/04)

MARSHALL, Thomas

One of the founder members of the RESL and father of Thomas Ansell Marshall (see below). Published a number of notes on stridulation in insects including 'Cause of sound in Cychrus rostratus', Ent. Mag. 1, 1833, pp. 213-214. This is presumably the Marshall referred to by Stephens (1828) as 'my friend' (p. 62). Stephens also refers to his having a collection (p. 179). (MD 2/04)

MARSHALL, Thomas Ansell (18 March 1827 - 11 April 1903)

Son of Thomas Marshall (see above). Born in Keswick and lived in Edgbaston. Studied at Bridgnorth School and Oxford in both of which he obtained scholarships. Learned Sanskrit and Hebrew. Worked at the British Museum before taking Holy Orders. Became a master at Cheltenham College and afterwards one of the principles of Milford College. Subsequently had various livings in England before moving to Antigua in the West Indies as Bishop's Chaplain. Lost his wife from fever there and narrowly escaped death himself. Returned to England to live with his sister in Cornwall where he remained until 1897. His last move was to Corsica where he devoted the remainder of his life to entomology. He died at Ajaccio.

Marshall's entomological interests centred mainly on the Ichneumonidae on which he published extensively, but before that, at the suggestion of Hamlet Clark whose collection he had earlier studied, he wrote a monograph on the Coleoptera 'Corynodinorum Recensio' in Journal LSL, 8, 1865, pp. 24-50.

There are letters and paintings, and 'Some account of T.A.M's earlier days' in the HDO (Smith (1986) p.8 3) and 5 MS leaves on his Hymenoptera collection in the NHM.

There are obituaries in EMM, 39, 1903, pp. 152-153; ERJV, 15, 1903, pp. 190-191; and Proc. ESL, 1903, lxxv-lxxvi. (MD 2/04)

MARSHAM, Thomas (d.1819)

No contemporary biographical account of this important early Coleopterist is known. He was well educated; a founder member of the Linnean Society and its Secretary from 1788-98 and Treasurer from 1898-1816. He was also Secretary to the West India Dock Company for many years and became an officer in the volunteer corps of the Home Guard in 1802. He married a Miss Symes of Ufford, Northants. and had two daughters. Of his period in the Home Guard, Mackechnie-Jarvis (1976) quotes an interesting letter from Alexander Macleay to William Kirby (in the LSL) of 14 November 1802: 'I do not believe I have seen our friend Marsham four times since the beginning of the war. This is my fault in some degree, but not entirely, for he is wholly taken up with his volunteer corps. Mrs Marsham says she is more bored with soldiering than ever she was by insect hunting. In fact our friend thinks of nothing but the repelling of our daring foe, and sticking of Frenchmen instead of the sticking of insects'.

His first entomological publication is usually said to have been 'Observations on the Phalaena lubricipeda of Linneaus and some other moths allied to it' in Trans. LSL, 1, 1791, pp. 67-75 (which includes a colour plate), but a more ambitious piece, 'System of Entomology', separately published copies of which are dated 1796, apparently appeared in Hall's Royal Encyclopaedia in 1788, since there is an offprint (with title page dated 1796) in the library of the RESL which was formerly in the possession of J.F. Stephens and H.T. Stainton.

The publication for which he is best known, however, is Entomologia Britannica, sistens Insecta Britanniae indigena secundum Linneum deposita. Coleoptera., 1802. The work, dedicated to the Linnean Society, was intended to cover other insects too, but almost certainly lost money because Marsham produced no further volumes. In it Marsham acknowledges the help of some 20 collaborators and lists 1,307 species (compared with some 441 listed by Linnaeus as European).

Later articles included 'Observations on the Curculio trifolii' (Trans. LSL 6, 1806, pp. 142-146. With Markwick and Lehmann); 'Some observations on an insect that destroys the wheat, supposed to be a wireworm' (ibid., 9, 1808, pp. 160-161); 'Description of Notoclea, a new genus of Coleopterous insects from New Holland' (ibid., pp. 283-295) and 'Some account of an insect of the genus Buprestis, taken alive out of wood composing a desk, which had been made above twenty years; in a letter to Mr Macleay' (ibid., 10, 1811, pp. 399-403)

Stephens (1828-18) includes numerous references to Marsham's collection which he had purchased shortly before Marsham's death. The identification of the Marsham specimens which Stepehens incorporated into his own collection, now in the NHM, is explored in detail by Peter Hammond in 'On the type material of Staphylinidae described by T. Marsham and J.F. Stephens' (Ent. Gaz., 23, pp. 129-135). He notes in particular 'that one traditional view, possibly widely adhered to, that it is frequently or even usually impossible to recognise original specimens of particular Marsham or Stephens species as such, is false... Indeed, there is every reason to believe that specimens on which most of the taxa described by Marsham and Stephens were based can be located and recognised in the Stephens and Kirby collections, which are maintained by the Museum as separate entities.'

Stephens bought Marsham's coleoptera as one lot (out of 466) in the auction sale of all his collections by King on 8-10 September 1819 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) pp. 6, 78). There are catalogues in the NHM and belonging to Chalmers-Hunt. Harvey et al. (1996) p. 129 list three MSS in the Insect Room Lists referring to Marsham's insects and a MS 'Notes by G.R. Waterhouse on Marsham's and Stephens' type specimens'. Marsham's death is referred to in a letter from Kirby to Macleay of 24 December 1819 quoted by MacKechnie-Jarvis (1976), p. 93: 'Our poor friend Marsham's departure from this troublesome world I learned from a friend who observed it in publick print and your son on my application was good enough to give me some particulars of his death. Sorrows came cumulatively upon him previous to his removal and I trust that they have worked out for him an entrance into a happier state than that he has lately experienced below.' (MD 2/04)

MARTIN, Miss

Gave 1218 specimens of various insects including Coleoptera to Glasgow Museum in 1900 (1900-174) Lived at 41 Naburn St., Glasgow. (MD 2/04)

MARTYN, Thomas (fl. 1760 - 1816)

The writer and publisher of the first book on British beetles. Martyn has been much confused with Thomas Martyn (1735-1825), the Cambridge botanist, whose interests were equally wide ranging. In sorting out who did what the reader is recommended to look at DNB and Thomas Wilkinson, 'John Abbot's London Years', part IV, ERJV, 98, 1984, p. 273.

Martyn is recorded to have been born in Coventry, but by 1770 he was established in London as a well-known dealer in natural history specimens. It was he who was responsible for sending John Abbott to America. Wilkinson (1984) mentions a letter amongst Dru Drury's correspondence detailing Martyn's payment to Thomas James of New York in 1772 for a shipment of insects, indicating that he already had contacts there. Later Martyn's business had grown to the extent that he was able to purchase for 400 guineas two thirds of the shells brought back by Captain Cook on his last expedition.

To further his natural history interests Martyn set up in 1786 at 26 King Street, Covent Garden 'at very great expence... an Academy of youths...possessing a natural genius for drawing and painting, to be cultivated and exerted under his immediate and sole direction' in delineating objects of natural history. Details of the school are contained in the Preface to the second edition of The Universal Conchologist, one of the publications of the Academy which had first appeared in four folio volumes in 1784. Martyn demanded very great accuracy from his artists and 'it has been deemed requisite, in a variety of instances, to make six or ten duplicate paintings of some of the more difficult subjects... before one could be obtained which the author judges sufficiently accurate to adopt for an original'. This applied in particular, apparently, to The English Entomologist exhibiting all the Coleopterous Insects found in England, including upwards of five hundred different Species, the Figures of which have never before been given to the Public...Drawn and Painted after Nature, arranged and named according to the Linnean System. which he published in 1792/3, for he states: 'In the work on English insects particularly, very great expense, as well as disappointment, was incurred through the obstinacy or carelessiness [sic] of the artist employed to etch the figures; who was too vain for his own judgement, or too frugal of his labour, to follow with due accuracy the drawings prepared for him: this rendered his whole performance, which he had twice attempted, altogether unserviceable, and gave occasion to introduce this additional branch of business [etching] into the academy'. (For bibliographic information about the volume see H.B. Weiss, 'Thomas Martyn's English Entomologist' Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 46, 1938, pp. 321-325; T. Wilkinson, 'A bibliographical description of Thomas Martyn's The English Entomologist (1792)' (ERJV, 90, 1978, pp. 263-264); and the same author's 'The date of Thomas Martyn's The English Entomologist 1792 or 1793' (ibid., 93, 1981, p. 135)).

The English Entomologist appeared in both English and French editions (my copy, in a contemporary binding, has both the English and French texts included). In the preface to the volume Martyn makes clear that 'all imaginable care has been taken, not to admit the figure of any one insect into this work, where the least doubt remained of its being a native of this country', but does not state whose insects were the source of the illustrations, the implication being that they were his own.

Although Martyn clearly states in The English Entomologist that it would be followed by two further volumes covering Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Neuroptera (2) and Diptera (3), these appear never to have been produced. The only other entomological publication which he published was Psyche: Figures of non descript Lepidopterous Insects in 1797, only 12 copies or less of which were printed (see Lisney, p. xiv), although he did publish a volume on Spiders in 1793 and another on plants in 1795.

Apart from his natural history activities Martyn also wrote political tracts and was involved in promoting hot air balloons, publishing Hints of Important Uses to be Derived from Aerostatic Globes in 1784.

Apart from the sources mentioned above see also W.H. Dall, 'Thomas Martyn and the Universal Conchologist' in Proc. U.S. National Museum, 29, 1908, pp. 415-432; H.B. Weiss, 'Thomas Martyn, conchologist, entomologist and pamphleteer of the eighteenth century' in American Collector, 3. 1926, pp. 57-62, and, on his Psyche, Journal of the Society for the History of Natural History, 12 (2), pp. 213-217. (MD 2/04)

MASON, Philip Brookes (2 January 1842-6 November 1903)

Born and died at Burton on Trent where both he and his father were doctors. Educated for this profession at Glasgow and University College, London, where he was awarded several prizes and medals before being appointed Demonstrator in Anatomy, a post which he held for three years. He was also a house surgeon in the hospital of Mr Erichson and Sir Henry Thompson.

Mason's obituary by W.W. Fowler, who was first inspired to take up the study of beetles by Mason (and W. Garneys), mentions that he started collecting objects of natural history at the age of four (EMM, 40, 1903, pp. 17-18 and correction p. 40). Although he undertook a collecting trip to Iceland in 1889, Fowler notes that 'for many years he did comparatively little collecting, but devoted a considerable proportion of his income to acquiring well known British collections; among them were the Coleoptera of Mr E.C. Rye and the Rev. A. Matthews (including the latter's unique collection of Trichopterygidae), the Lepidoptera of Mr T. Wilkinson, Mr Douglas and Mr J.Sang, the Aculeate Hymenoptera of Mr F. Smith and the Hemiptera of Mr Douglas and Mr Scott. The cabinets in time increased upon him so much that he erected a Museum adjoining his house... he also possessed an almost perfect British Herbarium [and]... his natural history library, too, was as complete as he could make it'.

Mason published some 30 articles including a number on Coleoptera the first three being in 1879 and including 'Coleoptera from Portland' (EMM 18, 1879, p. 134) and the remainder in the ten years before his death. He also funded the publishing of A. Matthews, Corylophidae and Sphaeriidae, (1899) the MSS of which had remained unpublished at the time of Matthews' death, and a Supplement to the same author's Trichopterygidae (1900). Mason also employed John Sang of Darlington to make coloured drawings of the British Staphylinidae 'executed with great skill and care' which were never published [pity!].

Although his Lepidoptera (the finest private collection in the country at the time) was sold at auction, his collection of Coleoptera passed to the Chadwick Museum, Bolton, with the duplicates going to H.W. Ellis (see letter dated 5 July 1932 at Bolton). It includes some 73,000 specimens and is essentially the series by E.C. Rye into which has been incorporated the following collections or parts of collections: Edwin Brown, A. Hewgill, G.C. Dupre, T. Wilkinson, J. Pelerin, J.G. Marsh, George Wailes, B. Cooke, J.W. Douglas, E. Shepherd, G.C. Champion, E.G. Kraatz, A. Matthews, P.H. Harper, R.S. Edleston, G.R. Crotch, J.A. Power, J. Brewer, E.W. Janson, T.V. Wollaston, A.H. Haliday, W.G. Blatch, H. Champion and D. Sharp. Geoff Hancock reported in 1976 that the collection 'has been well maintained but little work has been done on cataloguing. Possibility of 90 species being represented by types' (Biology Curators Group Newsletter, 3, 1976). A letter from Janson associated with the collection states 'Dr Mason's British collection I should regard as one of the best and perhaps largest that exists and I know he bought either through us or direct...'. There is a note on the collection by H.W. Ellis in Proc. RESL, (A), 17, 1942, pp. 62-63.

There are also Coleoptera bearing Mason's name in the general collection at Doncaster and several thousand Hymenoptera and Diptera in NMW. The NHM possesses a typescript letter dated 1899 to C.O. Waterhouse.

The sale of his library by Stevens on 17 May, 21 June and 12 July 1904 is mentioned in ERJV, 16, 1904, pp. 144-145.

To the six obituaries listed by Gilbert (1977) may be added C.F. Thornewill, J. Conch., 11, 1904, pp. 104-105.

FLS 1872, FES 1874 (Council), and member of several foreign societies. (MD 2/04)

MASSEE, Arthur Morel (1899 - 14 September 1967)

Elder son of George Massee the eminent Kew mycologist. Educated at East Sheen Grammar School, Surrey, and after leaving worked for Bunyards of Maidstone, the horticulturalists. After serving in the First World War went to Imperial College where he studied under Lefroy. In 1920 he joined the small staff at East Malling Research Station where he was to spend the rest of his working life, finally retiring in 1961. At East Malling he worked on mites and subsequently on pests of fruit trees about which he wrote extensively both scientific and more popular works the best known being his book The Pests of Fruit and Hops (1937).

Throughout his life Massee was an enthusiastic collector firstly of Heteroptera, of which he amassed what A.A. Allen described 'as about the finest, most complete and beautifully-mounted collection of the British species ever made' (ERJV, 1967, pp. 318-320) and of Coleoptera. Mike Morris has said of him: 'He did not do much original descriptive or revisional work, but was deeply interested in the habits and life histories of the species he collected... He collected very widely in southern England and the Scottish Highlands, being particularly fond of the New Forest. He was an indefatigable worker in the field, being one of those collectors whose motto is 'never let up' (EMM, 103, 1967, pp.215-16). Among his close friends were E.C. Bedwell (Massee was closely involved in the Bedwell collection going to Norwich (see correspondence at Norwich)) and Philip Harwood.

Massee's extensive list of publications includes the addition of many beetles to the Kent list in particular. Among his many important finds there were Emus hirtus, Gnorimus nobilis and Lixus paraplecticus.

His collection of Heteroptera was bequeathed to the NHM which also had first choice from his Coleoptera collection before it passed (in 30 storeboxes 'mounted in impeccable style') with his extensive library to BENHS. The Coleoptera were subsequently transferred to a 40 drawer cabinet (James (1973) p. 79). There are also specimens bearing his name in the Hudson Beare Collection at RSM.

FRES from 1922, Vice President 1949, 1959, Council three times between 1949-1959. Hon. Fellow 1959. Member of BENHS from 1922 and later a tern as President. Committee member of the Nature Conservancy. (MD 2/04)

MASTERS

This name appears on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (Information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MASTERS, George (1837 -26 June 1912)

Born in Kent and went to Australia in 1856 where he worked for Dr Godfrey Howitt, a keen entomologist. In 1859 he met Sir William Macleay and collected for him in various parts of the country. Appointed Assistant Curator, Australian Museum, Sydney, in 1864 and developed the collections which became the Macleay Museum. Published a Catalogue of the Described Coleoptera of Australia in four parts 1871-72.

A MS Index to the catalogue is in the NHM. (All information from Harvey, et al. (1998) p.130.)

Gilbert (1977) lists 7 obituary and other notices. (MD 2/04)

MATHEW, Gervase Frederick (11 February 1842 - 10 February 1928)

Younger brother of Rev. Alexander Murray Mathew, who also published on entomology. Mainly a Lepidopterist but had an early interest in beetles writing 'Coleoptera in North Devon' in EWI, 6, 1859, pp. 43-44; 'Doings of a Coleopterist', ibid., 7, 1859, pp. 188-189; Captures of Coleoptera' ibid., 8, 1860, pp. 1116-1117, and 'Habits of Bledius tricornis', Zool., 18, 1860, p. 7217.

MATTHEWS, Andrew (18 June 1815 - 14 September 1897)

Son of the Rev. Andrew Hughes Matthews and brother of Rev. Henry Matthews both ornithologists and entomologists. A second brother, J.B. Matthews, lived in Vancouver. Entered Lincoln College, Oxford in 1833 and, after graduating, was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford to the Curacy of Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire. Subsequently moved to Gumley in Leicestershire where he remained for 44 years. Married in 1860 the daughter of John Dodd.

Published a joint work with his brother on the birds of Oxfordshire in 1849. His early interest in entomology centred on the Lepidoptera, of which he formed a good collection, and he published his first paper at the age of 14 in Mag. Nat. Hist., 2, 1829, pp. 66-67. His first paper on Coleoptera, 'Notice of some new genera and species of Brachelytra' appeared in the same magazine nine years later (5, 1838, pp. 188-198). It was to be the beetles upon which he decided to concentrate and in particular the Ptiliidae then little studied because of their minute size. His first publication on this family 'A synonymic list of the British Trichopterygidae' appeared in Zool., 16, 1858, pp. 7063-7068, and was subsequently followed by 28 others covering the world fauna, many illustrated with his own careful drawings of his own dissections. In 1872 he published a monograph Trichopterygia Illustrata which dealt with the world fauna, and after his death P.B. Mason, who had acquired much of his collection, published at his own expense a Supplement (1904), the manuscript of which Matthews had completed but not submitted for publication.

Matthews also had some interest in other groups writing on Myllaena, Amblopinus, Leistotrophus, and, later in life, the Corylophidae on which Mason arranged the publication of a companion volume to the Trichopterygia Illustrata titled Corylophidae and Sphaeriidae in 1899 again based on Matthews' unpublished manuscripts which he edited. Many of these publications described new species to the British list. Many of his collecting trips were undertaken with his brother Henry who found many of his important specimens (see Matthews, Henry)

Matthews' collection, including the types of his Ptiliidae and Myllaena, together with specimens collected by his father, were acquired by Bolton as part of the P.B. Mason collection, after Mason had passed the foreign types described in Trichopterygidae Illustrata to the NHM. There is also a collection of named British Ptiliidae in the HDO acquired in 1886, and Matthews' specimens are to be found in the general collection at Doncaster Museum and in the H. Willoughby Ellis collection at York Museum (Information from Mike Denton). Some British Coleoptera (and Lepidoptera) were sold by Stevens on 14 December 1897 and the same auctioneer sold his birds on 16 July 1901 (Chalmers-Hunt (1976) pp.134, 137).

There is a letter from Matthews to Westwood of 1886 in the HDO, and he is mentioned in the Janson diary at Cambridge e.g. 1 July 1869, 4 July 1870. His original drawings for the Trichopterygidae Illustrata are in the possession of Charles Mackechnie-Jarvis.

There are obituaries, in EMM, 33, 1897, pp. 258-260 (by W.W. Fowler, who was a friend of Matthews); Ent. News, 8, 1897, p. 256; Ent., 30, 1897, p. 276; and Trans. ESL, l897, p .lxxiii (by R. Trimen). (MD 2/04)

MATTHEWS, Henry (d. 1874 -77)

Brother of Andrew (see above) and like him was also ordained. Clearly an enthusiastic Coleopterist but virtually all we know about him is contained in a note 'Leistotrophus cingulatus in Devonshire; with obituary notice of the Rev. H. Matthews' (EMM, 14, 1887, pp. 38-39). 'As a collector but few have ever been more successful, he seemed intuitively to recognise any strange form instantly on its appearance, and many of the best species recorded by myself in the pages of the Ent. Mo. Mag. and other publications have been the result of his labours. Assisted by another brother (Mr J.B. Matthews), in Vancouver's Island he amassed a vast number of rare Coleoptera, including Zacotus Matthewsi, Amphizoa Lecontei, Amphizoa Josephi, and many others new to science. Of these collections which he brought with him on his return... in 1869, and of my brother's work, Dr Le Conte in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, Dec. 1867, speaks in terms of the highest praise.' (MD 2/04)

MAXWELL, Katherine

Foreign beetles principally from South Africa and Nigeria collected by Miss Katherine Maxwell and others were acquired by Glasgow Museum in 1985. (Information from Geoff Hancock). (MD 2/04)

MAY, A.H.

There is a collection of 21,000 specimens in the RSM (accession no. 1962-24) collected from about 1916-1938. Incorporated into the collection is that of H. Heasler whose specimens were nearly all remounted and re-labelled by May but bear initials HH. Most of these date from up to 1903. Also includes specimens from other collectors including E.A. Newbery, P.H. Harwood, H. Donisthorpe, and A. Ferguson. The origin of other specimens labelled 'Old Coll' and 'D's Box' is obscure. The collection was given by Frank Balfour Browne who had previously acquired it as an anonymous Glasgow collection, and in keeping it for himself said that he considered it of not sufficient quality for an institutional collection and used it to make slides, dissections, etc. Its identity was established by Pelham Clinton who noted that Kevan considered it rather important and that it included several things new to the British /Scottish (?) list.

The only references to May seem to be those by J.J .Walker: 'Sheppey records of A.H. May' in Trans. ESL, 7(2), 1932, p. 123 and by A. Fergusson: 'Clyde records of A.H. May', in Scot. Nat., 1922, pp. 155-164. (MD 2/04)

MAY, Brenda (1917 - 7 October 1998)

Born in Essex but emigrated to New Zealand in the 1950s with her husband and children. Joined the Plant Diseases Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Auckland in 1956 where she became a dedicated speleologist, surveying and mapping large areas of limestone caves and discovering new cave beetles. Her particular interest was in weevils especially their biology and immature stages and upon which she became a world authority. 28 of her published papers were on this group the most important being a systematic overview which appeared as volume 28 of the Fauna of New Zealand series in 1993, and a paper dealing with the immature stages in Zimmerman, E.C. Australian Weevils, 2, pp. 365-726.

There is a photograph and obituary by G. Kuschel in Curculio, 43, December 1998, pp. 14-15, from which the above is taken. (MD 2/04)

MAY, John William (1826 - 17 June 1902)

His father worked in London as Dutch shipbroker and also held the position of Consul General of the Netherlands. John William subsequently became Vice Consul.

An obituary in EMM, 38, 1902, p. 186 states 'He took a keen interest in entomology, and we think had amassed very considerable collections especially in Coleoptera and Hymenoptera...But he published little if anything.'

Chalmers-Hunt (1976) p. 140 records that his British Coleoptera collection was sold by Stevens on 17 March 1903.

FESL 1860, Council (MD 2/04)

MELLY, C.

Represented in H.W. Ellis' foreign beetle collection in Liverpool Museum. (MD 2/04)

MELVILLE, Cosmo

Published an article on the Insecta including Coleoptera of the Manchester district in British Association Handbook, 1886 (Sharp, 1908: p. 14). (MD 2/04)

MERRETT, W.E.S.

Cerambycids from Nigeria bearing this name are in Gilmour collection at Doncaster Museum. (MD 2/04)

MILES

There is a collection of beetles by Miles made in c.1866 incorporated into the general collection of British Coleoptera at Exeter Museum. (MD 2/04)

MILLARD, S.W.

Mentioned by Stephens (1828) e.g. 1, p. 161 and 2, p.164. (MD 2/04)

MILLER, A.

This name appears on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MILLS, William

Published 'Observations upon the Corn Weevil, contained in a letter addressed to the Rev. F.W. Hope', Trans. ESL, 1, 1836, pp. 241-42. (MD 2/04)

MILLWARD, T.

This name appears on Coleoptera in the general collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MILLWARD, W.H.

This name appears on Coleoptera from Brazil, China, Japan and India, collected in 1919-1938, in the foreign collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MILNE, James Napier (1841-1918)

Glasgow Museum acquired, via Norman Whittacker, 515 specimens of Irish Coleoptera (together with 1923 Lepidoptera), collected by Milne in the early 20th Century, in 1921 (1921-27). (MD 2/04)

MILTON, F. (d.1921)

Duff (1993) p. 4 describes Milton as spending 'most of his life as a church-worker in East London. He was a general entomologist who travelled quite widely in the Home Counties and also received specimens from Wellington, Somerset, to where he later moved, probably on his retirement. For some years he was an honorary member of the entomological section of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society and left his collection to Taunton Museum. This contains specimens collected in or near Castle Cary and Wellington supposedly between 1908 and 1915 (some are certainly older than that), but at least the Castle Cary material may consist of duplicates received from MacMillan. A number of Milton's records purporting to be from 'Castle Cary' are of coastal species...'

Milton's name appears on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow).

There is a brief obituary in Proc. Som. Arch. Nat. Hist. Soc., 67, 1922, pp. lvii-lviii. (MD 2/04)

MITFORD, R.S.

There is a 40 drawer cabinet of British Coleoptera in Hastings Museum presented by Mitford in 1927. (MD 2/04)

MOFFET, Thomas (1553 - 5 June 1604)

Also spelt Moufet, Mouffett, and Muffet. Second son of a haberdasher of Scottish descent. Educated at Merchant Taylors School, and at Cambridge University and Basle where he studied medicine obtaining a doctorate at the latter in 1578. Travelled widely in Europe before returning to England towards the end of 1580. Lived at first in Ipswich before moving to London and finally to Bulbridge near Salisbury where he was given a home as a pensioner by the Count and Countess of Pembroke. It was through the influence of the Earl that he obtained a seat in parliament as the member for Wilton, where he is buried.

Moffet published various books and pamphlets but is included here because his Insectorum Theatrum, the first edition of which was published in 1634, contains the first account in English of beetles (he refers to earlier continental authorities) amounting to some 90 pages out of 326. The work was originally planned by Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) as the 6th volume of his Historia Animalium and it is likely that much of Moffet's information came from an earlier unpublished MS compiled by Thomas Penny (1532-1588). The volume and its various re-issues and second edition (1658) are discussed by Lisney (1980), pp. 4-9. Moffet also published a work on Silkwormes and their Flies. (MD 2/04)

MONCREAFF, H.

This name appears in the Gorham diary in Birmingham Museum and in the Janson diary at Cambridge Museum e.g. August 1869, October 1871. Perhaps this is the same Moncrieff whose name appears on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MONTAGUE, H.

Published 'A day's beetle collecting on Schehallion', Zool. 21, 1863, p. 8412. (MD 2/04)

MOORE

A Doctor. A small collection of beetles made by Moore between 1830-1865 is in Leeds City Museum. (Fenscore). (MD 2/04)

MOORE, Frederick (13 May 1830 - 10 May 1907)

Known as 'the father of Indian Lepidopterists'. FBI series on beetles indicates that he occasionally collected them too. Gilbert (1966) lists eleven obituary and other notices. (MD 2/04)

MOORE, O.J.S.

K.G. Blair, Coleoptera of the Isles of Scilly, 1931 refers to Moore as a collector who had worked on Tresco. (MD 2/04)

MOREY, F.

This name appears on specimens in the Butler collection of foreign Coleoptera at Norwich (information from Tony Irwin) also on Coleoptera in the Hall collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow). (MD 2/04)

MORGAN, Joan (Margaret) (25 September 1921 - 28 December 1998)

Born in Halifax, the daughter of a Welsh father and English mother. Went to Liverpool University in 1939 where she took a degree in Zoology. After graduating she took a teaching certificate in 1944 and then taught at a grammar school in the Isle of Man before marrying her cousin, a merchant navy seaman. Subsequently did an MSc. on midges before moving with her three children to north Wales where in 1957 she began teaching in the Department of Agricultural and Forest Zoology at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. Her appointment resulted from the death of Neil Chrystal who had been doing entomology demonstrations there. (Morgan in litt.) She remained at Bangor until retirement in 1989. Morgan served on the Committee for the Conservation of British Insects, and was active in what is now known as the North Wales Wildlife Trust. Served on the editorial board of Nature in Wales and started, in 1990, the North Wales Invertebrate Group Newsletter. Wrote with Bill Lacey The Nature of North Wales.

Morgan's work on entomology stretched to most groups and she was invertebrate recorder for six Welsh vice-counties. She also built up an impressive reference collection for the Bangor area which includes not only the specimens she collected, but also those collected by her students. The data which accompanied the collection includes more than 60,000 records and is now in the NMW. A computerised copy of her complete faunal list has been produced by the Countryside Council for Wales. Her publications on entomology encompassed all orders and involved adding many insects to the Welsh list, often as the result of identifications which she had made for others, as well as confirmations of several rare species. The work for which she is best known amongst Coleopterists is the Supplement to Skidmore and Johnson's list of the Coleoptera of Merioneth (1989) in Ent. Gaz., 25, 1974, pp. 53-75. This added some 88 new records to the original 1,150.

There are obituaries in Society for the History of Natural History Newsletter, 65, July 1999, pp. 11-12, and by Paul Whalley in Antenna, 23(4), 1999, pp. 210-211. (MD 2/04)

MORLEY, Claude (22 June 1874 - 13 November 1951)

Born in Blackheath and educated at Beccles, King's School, Peterborough and Epsom College. After spending much time on the Isle of Wight where his father had a house at Cowes, he moved in about 1892 to Ipswich and studied under John E. Taylor, Curator of the Museum there. After marrying in 1904 he settled in Monks Soham where he remained until his death. He is recorded to have been highly individualistic and to have had a hatred of modern progress so that he would not permit a radio, telephone, or electricity into his house nor would he accept 'summer time'. One of his best friends was the Coleopterist Arthur Chitty.

Morley's interest in entomology was already well established by the early 1890s and appears to have centred on the Coleoptera, although he quickly moved on to the Hemiptera and the Ichneumonidae, for the study of which he is best known. His magnum opus was the five volume Ichneumons of Great Britain (1903-1914). His most important work on the Coleoptera was The Coleoptera of Suffolk, 1899 (published in Plymouth by the Coleopterist J.H. Keys) and its Supplement, 1915 (also Keys); the first listed 1783 species and the second 237. He also wrote many articles in the EMM, ERJV, and other periodicals, and was on the editorial staff of the Entomologist from 1909.

Morley's collection of mainly Suffolk material covering the period 1898-1951 was acquired by the Suffolk Naturalists Society and is housed at Ispwish Museum where it is maintained separately and occupies c.260 drawers. His obituary in EMM, 87, 1951, p. 327, refers to a collection associated with his 1899 Suffolk list being given by him to Bury St Edmonds Museum in 1905. There are Cerambycids bearing his name in the Kauffmann collection at Manchester. MSS material at Ipswich was acquired with his collection.

FESL from 1896. (MD 2/04)

MORLEY, Thomas

Mentioned in Sharp (1908) p. 13 as an artisan of Manchester who was an energetic Coleopterist. Published seven notes in EMM between 1868 and 1873 mainly recording finds in the Manchester area.

Morley's name appears in the Gorham diary in Birmingham Museum and in the Janson diary at Cambridge (e.g. June 1869). His collection was purchased by the Manchester Museum in 1904 via A. Reston and has been incorporated into the general collection. Associated with it are some MSS including catalogues listing localities and collectors. (MD 2/04)

MORRIS

There is a collection in the Booth Museum at Brighton bearing this name (information from Peter Hodge). (MD 2/04)

MORRIS, Francis Orpen (25 March 1810 - 10 November 1893)

A Reverend who is well known for his important popular works on birds and butterflies in particular. Wrote 'Setting of Coleoptera' in Weekly Entomologist, 1, 1862, p. 4 and a Catalogue of British Insects (on this last see MacKechnie Jarvis (1975) p. 107). (MD 2/04)

MOSLEY, S.L.

Gave 910 British beetles to Keighley Museum in 1905 (Acc. No. 102:1910) (Fenscore). Represented in the Hall collection at Oldham (information from Simon Hayhow) and in H.W. Ellis' foreign beetle collection in Liverpool Museum. Mosley was a well known Coleopterist in his day but I have not been able to trace any obituary notices or other accounts of him. (MD 2/04)

MOUNTFIELD, W.

Lived in Warrington in the early 1900s. General entomologist. His collection in Llandudno Museum, which mostly covers the period 1896-1913 and includes c.1200 specimens in 24 cases and drawers, contains worldwide Coleoptera (N. Africa, India, Japan and China). A second collection in 11 boxes in Penrhyn Castle also includes beetles, some foreign (West Africa, Australia, etc.) (Fenscore). (MD 2/04)

MUIR, Frederick Arthur Godfrey (1872 - 13 May 1931)

Born at Clapham the fourth child of Joseph A. Muir who held a post in Egypt and died at Alexandria in 1886. Frederick then had to leave school and joined the Eastern Telegraph Company subsequently being stationed in Aden, Mozambique, Lorenzo, Marques and Durban. At all these stations he collected insects in which he had been interested since childhood.

While at Aden Muir met David Sharp whose daughter Ann he subsequently married. Sharp was instrumental in his leaving the telegraph service and joining the scientific staff of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association at Honolulu in 1905 under Dr R.C.L. Perkins. Here he rescued the plantations from attacks by pests (indroduced accidentally without their control agents) by 'travelling far and wide, facing sickness, hardships and savage tribes, to discover the native countries of these pests and their enemies and parasites...His ingenuity in introducing the controlling agents to the Hawaiian Islands is shown in the case of the fly parasitic upon the cane-borer weevil; finding it impossible, owing to the shortness of the fly's life cycle, to import it direct from New Guinea to Honolulu, Muir established intermediate breeding stations in Australia and Fiji, and so, by breeding them through several generations on the way, transported the insects to their destination.' (Times, 22 May 1931).

Muir published more than 100 papers on entomology covering in particular the Hemiptera. The publication for which he is best known by Coleopterists is his joint article with David Sharp, written while he was on leave in England in 1911, entitled 'The Comparative Anatomy of the Male Genital Tube in Coleoptera', Trans. ESL, 1912, pp. 477-642 and pls. xlii-lxxviii, which was subsequently published as a book by the Entomological Society of America in 1969. The book also included six further articles by both authors which updated the work.

Muir gave 19 boxes of exotic Coleoptera to Cambridge (Insect Department Register, 8 December 1922). There are also specimens bearing his name in the foreign collection of Butler at Norwich Museum (information from Tony Irwin).

Muir's son David wrote a biographical account of his father which, as far as I know, remains unpublished. I am very grateful to Mike Wilson for presenting this to me and will be happy to make the information contained in it available upon request. (MD 2/04)

MUIR, Robert Clive

Worked in the Zoology Department at Cambridge where he specialised in the ecology of Coleoptera. Gave Carabidae from Wicken Fen to the Museum in January 1965 (Insect Department Register).

FRES from 1951. (MD 2/04)

MUNRO

Birmingham Museum, Accessions Book 19, 24 Jan 1955 mentions that H. Willoughby Ellis gave beetles from Crowthorne for the 'Munro' exhibit. (MD 2/04)

MURDOCH, Harold P.

Gave 4 boxes of Coleoptera (and other boxes of other insects) from various localities to Glasgow Museum in 1958 (1958-4). (MD 2/04)

MURGATROYD, J.H.

This name appear on det. labels in the amalgamated general collection at Manchester. There are also specimens in the Bryce collection at Sheffield (information from Steve Garland). (MD 2/04)

MURPHY, John Edward (d. August 1941)

Published Coleoptera records from the Glasgow area in Scot. Nat., 1921, pp. 25-26. His collection from this area, in 3 small cabinets (amounting to approx 23 drawers) was donated to the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, in May 1937 (where other insects collected by him are also housed). Other Coleoptera bearing his name are in the general collection at Doncaster (some dated 1910). These include Typhaeus from Richmond Park and other species from Hammersmith.

MURRAY, Andrew (19 November 1812 - 10 January 1878)

Born in Edinburgh and educated for the law. Appointed Writer to the Signet. Tiring of the legal profession he moved in 1860 to London where he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society. He remained with the Society, taking a particular interest in the Coniferae on which he published many papers, and at the time of his death was its Scientific Director. In character and appearance Murray was described as a 'strikingly original...somewhat uncouth figure' (EMM, 14, 1878, pp. 215-216).

Murray's interest in entomology and particularly Coleoptera started before he left Edinburgh. His earliest paper 'Description de deux Buprestides mouveaux' was published in Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 10, 1852, pp. 253-255 and in the same year he also published a 'Report on the Coleoptera of Scotland' in Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin.. This last led to his best known work of this period the Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Scotland, 1853, the preface to which makes clear that he was in contact with all the Scottish Coleopterists of his day. He also explains that he himself collected particularly in Fife, Perth, Kinross and Clackmannan together with John T. Syme, Professor Fleming, George A. Coventry and Dr Greville. Murray's other major publication on the British fauna at this time - he published several descriptions of new species from Africa and South America, and was thought to have a brother who was a missionary in Old Calabar who sent him specimens - was a revision of Catops in Ann. Nat. Hist. 18, 1856, which was subsequently separately published.

Following his move to London Murray's most important paper was a 'Monograph of the Family of Nitidulariae' in Trans. LSL, 24, 1864, pp. 211-414 and 5 col. plates. This was intended to be part 1 of a two part work which would embrace the world fauna but it was not completed for reasons of cost.

In 1868 as part of his work for the RHS Murray formed a collection of insects illustrative of economic entomology for the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) which was shown at Bethnal Green Museum and for which he wrote a popular Handbook. When an outbreak of the Colorado beetle caused a hasty Act of Parliament to be passed in 1877 Murray was selected to visit all outbreaks.

There is an obituary in EMM, 14, 1878, pp. 215-16.

FLS 1861. (MD 2/04)

MURRAY, James (9 June 1872 - 7 March 1942)

Born in Carlisle and worked on the Coleoptera there (together with insects of other orders) often in conjunction with F.H. Day who wrote his obituary in EMM, 78, 1942, p. 120. Later he moved to Gretna in Dumfries where he continued to collect and where he died. Day noted that he was a very careful and methodical worker who submitted most of his captures to others for naming. Published many notes in the EMM and other periodicals beginning with 'Bembidium schuppeli in Cumberland' in Nat. London, 1899, p. 288.

His collection is in the Tullie House Museum, Carlisle. (MD 2/04)

MURREY, J.W.

This name appears on Coleoptera in the H. Willoughby Ellis collection at York Museum (information from Mike Denton). (MD 2/04)

Last updated: 25 February 2004