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Kirby, William Forsell (1844-1912)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Born in Leicester England on 14th January 1844 and died on the 20th of November 1912. Curator of Museum of the Royal Dublin Society (afterwards National Museum of Science and Art) 1867-1879. Succeeded Frederick Smith in the Zoological Department of the British Museum 1879-1909. He wrote on a number of groups of insects and published many useful catalogues.
Kirby had a wide range of interests, knew many languages and fully translated the Finnish epic, Kalevala, from Finnish into English. He provided many footnotes to Sir Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.
Kirby also did important work on orthopteroid insects including a three volume Catalogue of all known species (1904, 1906, 1910). A short biography of Kirby, with particular reference to his work on phasmids was published by Bragg in 2007.
ANT TAXONOMY
Camponotus melichloros sp. n.;
PUBLICATIONS
- Kirby, W.F. 1888. On the insects (exclusive of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) of Christmas Island. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1888: 546-555. [4.xii.1888.]
- Kirby, W.F. 1896. Hymenoptera. In Spencer, B. Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia 1: 203-209. Melbourne. [(30).ix.1896.]
REFERENCE
- Brett, U.K. (Ed.)1995. A portrait of W.F. Kirby and his family. 28pp., portraits. London.