William Forsell Kirby

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Not to be confused with the earlier English entomologist William Kirby.

William Forsell Kirby (January 14, 1844 - November 20, 1912^[1]) was an English entomologist and folklorist.

Born in Leicester, the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, a banker, he was educated privately, and became interested in butterflies and moths at an early age. The family had moved to Brighton and here he became acquainted with Henry Cooke, Frederick Merrifield and J N Winter.^[2] He published a small Manual of European Butterflies in 1862.

In 1867 he became a curator in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, and produced a Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera (1871; Supplement 1877).

In 1879 Kirby joined the staff of the Natural History Museum as an Assistant after the death of Frederick Smith. He published a number of catalogues, as well as Rhopalocera Exotica (1887-1897) and an Elementary Text-book of Entomology. He retired in 1909.

Kirby had a wide range of interests, knew many languages and translated (for the first time directly from Finnish, as opposed to from another language) the Finnish epic, Kalevala, into English. He provided many footnotes to Sir Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.^[2]

Kirby also did important work on orthopteroid insects including a three volume Catalogue of all know species (1904, 1906, 1910). A short biography of Kirby, with particular reference to his work on phasmids was published by Bragg in 2007^[3].

[edit] Works and Achievements

[edit] Entomology

Manual of European Butterflies. 1862
Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera. 1871
Catalogue of the collection of diurnal Lepidoptera formed by the late William Chapman Hewitson of Oatlands, Walton on Thames; and bequeathed by him to the British Museum. London, John Van Voorst. iv + 246 pp.[[18
Familiar butterflies and moths. 1901
Butterflies and moths of Europe (Illustrated). 1903
Elementary Text-book of Entomology.
Hand-book to the order Lepidoptera. 1897
Marvels of Ant Life. Circa 1890s
A Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera. British Museum (Natural History), London. 3 volumes: 1904, 1906, 1910

He is also credited on a few other works:

Illustrations of diurnal Lepidoptera by William Chapman Hewitson 1863
Natural history. by Richard Lydekker 1897

[edit] Literary

Kalevala the Land of Heroes. 1907. ISBN 978-0-674-50000-6
The Hero of Esthonia? and other studies in the romantic literature of that country. 1895
Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights and Their Imitations (An appendix to Volume 10 to Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights. 1886

[edit] Notes

^ Who's Who 1914, p. xxii
^ ^a ^b Rao, BR Subba (1998) History of entomology in India. Institution of Agricultural Technologists, Bangalore.
^ Bragg, P.E. (2007) Biographies of Phasmatologists - 4. William Forsell Kirby. Phasmid Studies, 16(1): 5-10.

[edit] External links

The Natural History Museum at South Kensington William T. Stearn ISBN 0-434-73600-7
A handbook to the order Lepidoptera Scanned version
Elementary Text-book of Entomology Scanned version
A manual of European butterflies, on the plan of Stainton's manual of British butterflies and moths the ill. by T. W. Wood Scanned version
A synonymic catalogue of diurnal lepidoptera / by W. F. Kirby Scanned version
A synonymic catalogue of neuroptera odonata, or dragonflies : with an appendix of fossil species Scanned version
A synonymic catalogue of lepidoptera heterocera (moths.). Vol. I, Sphinges and bombyces Scanned version
The Hero of Esthonia
Works by William Forsell Kirby at Project Gutenberg