Biographical dictionary
The Biographical Dictionary of British Coleopterists was compiled by the late Michael Darby. The Dictionary can be accessed below, and see also the additional information provide by Michael:
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| Name | Dates | Biography | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.Correspondence including letters from his wife at the time of his death is in the RESL (Pedersen (2002) p. 91). There is an obituary in The Times, 22 May 1931. (MD 2/04, 11/09) | |
| 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.215-16). 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.Pedersen (2002) p. 55 records correspondence dated 16 February 1863 with A.H.Haliday in the RESL. There is an obituary in EMM, 14, 1878, pp. 215-16. (MD 2/04) | |
| MURRAY, C. | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22) |
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| MURRAY, C. | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22) |
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| MURRAY, David | He is listed by James,T.J. (2018) as providing a special contribution either in the form of a comprehensive site list or a substantial number of records (MD 1/22) |