William Forsell Kirby

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

He was born in Leicester. He was the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, who was a banker. He was educated privately, and became interested in butterflies and moths at an early age. The family moved to Brighton, where he became acquainted with Henry Cooke, Frederick Merrifield and J N Winter.^[2] He published the 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 fully translated the Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, from Finnish into English. Kirby's translation, which carefully reproduces the Kalevala meter, was a major influence on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, who first read it in his teens.

Kirby 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 known species (1904, 1906, 1910). A short biography of Kirby, with particular reference to his work on phasmids was published by Bragg in 2007^[3].

Works and Achievements

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
• A Hand-book to the Order Lepidoptera. 1896.
• 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

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

Notes

External links

• The Natural History Museum at South Kensington William T. Stearn ISBN 0-434-73600-7
• A handbook to the order Lepidoptera at www.archive.org.
• 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