HALIDAY, Alexander Henry

Born in Belfast and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Subsequently studied for the law, and was called to the bar, but he preferred the study of literature and natural history, and it is not clear whether he ever practised. He settled in the North of Ireland where, in 1843, he was elected High Sheriff of Antrim. In 1860, for reasons of health, he moved to Italy where he took up residence with his relative, Signor Pisani, at the Villa Pisani, near Lucca. Following a visit to Sicily with Dr Perceval Wright his health deteriorated and he died in Lucca aged 63. Haliday is best known as a Dipterist, and later as a Hymenopterist and worker on the Thysanoptera, but before pursuing these studies he worked for a short time on the Coleoptera and there are many references to him in the contemporary literature, particulary for his captures around the shores of Lough Neagh and on Slubh Donard. From the latter he described a new species Calathus nubigena in 1838, but this was subsequently synonymised with melanocephalus. Haliday gave various Coleoptera to the British Museum (Natural History): 1846/70 and 72, 1851/9, 1863/20,77, and 83, 1868/36. A note in the Newsletter of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 13, February 1982, mentions that R.Nash of Belfast was writing a Ph.D. entitled 'Life and Work of an Irish Entomologist A.H.Haliday'. Gilbert (1977) p.156, lists ten obituary and other notices including EMM, 7, 1870, p.91. (MD 3/03)