Robert Walter Campbell Shelford

Robert Walter Campbell Shelford ( born August 3, 1872 in Singapore, † June 22, 1912 in Margate ), was a British entomologist, museum director and scientist specializing in entomology and mimicry in insects; he specialized in Blattidae, a family within the cockroaches and devoted himself to basic work on stick insects.

Biography

Robert Walter Campbell Shelford was born on August 3, 1872 in Singapore, the son of a leading British businessman. After an accident at the age of three years, a hip joint damage, which disabled him for years he developed. Most of the time he spent lying down. His mobility was better again after surgery at the age of ten years, but it was impossible for him as a child to participate in sports activities; first as a student at Oxford, he grew fond of the game of golf. The person responsible for the joint damage tuberculosis broke in his later life again and probably caused his untimely death.

Shelford studied at King's College London and then at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After graduating from Cambridge, he went in 1895 as assistant to Professor LC Miall for Biology at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. In 1897 he followed a call to Sarawak as curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, where he spent the next seven years. During this time, he sent a large quantity of collectibles at his old university in Cambridge.

In 1902 he published a highly acclaimed monograph in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London on mimicry in insects in Borneo.

He left in 1905, the Sarawak Museum and returned to England. At Oxford he became deputy curator of the Hope Department of Zoology at the Museum of the University of Oxford. From his return from Borneo back to England, he also brought a lot of items with which he bequeathed to the Hope Collection at Oxford, in addition to an " immense collection of insects from Borneo, which it is the Hope Collection 1899-1901 during his time as curator come of the Sarawak Museum had " (Smith, 1986: 58) ..

His main occupation in Oxford were cockroaches, but his work also included other insects, which he had brought from Borneo, as well as a research assistant in the library. From his time at Oxford comes also the majority of his published research on phasmids.

On June 25, 1908, he married Audrey Gurney from Bath. In April 1909, he slipped and his tubercular bone disease flared up again. The last three years of his life it hindered his work to a great extent. Robert Shelford died in Margate at the age of 39 years on 22 June 1912.

After Shelford named species

Various orthopteroide insects were named after Shelford. These include a Mantis from Borneo: Deroplatys shelfordi ( Kirby, 1903), a Bornean phasmids: Baculofractum shelfordi ( Bragg, 2005), two species of cockroaches: Shelfordella ( Adelung, 1910) and Shelfordina ( Hebard, 1929) and 17 species of cockroaches.

Among the plants named after him include the Dischidia shelfordii bulbs.

Shelfords cockroaches

Shelford described 44 new species of cockroaches and 326 new species.

Shelfords Orthoptera

Shelford described merely a subspecies of the Orthoptera, the Gryllacris vicinissima nigratae ( Shelford, 1902).

Shelfords phasmids

The vast majority of phasmids in the Sarawak Museum in Kuching were collected as curator of the museum during Shelfords time, probably is also true, to the plurality of groups of insects in the collection. Many of the exhibits from Borneo in the collections of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge also date from the time Shelfords in Sarawak.

1901 Shelford described the eggs of some phasmids, which he described as " Necroscia, Marmessoidea and Agondasoidea ". He noted that " Phasmidae, despite its wonderful protective resemblance to twigs and leaves, are the main food source for Trogonae ".

In 1908 Shelford a catalog of phasmid species of Central America out. This was based on the publications by Brunner (1907 ) & Redtenbacher (1906 & 1908), but containing some species that did not take into account the other authors.

Based on his work in Oxford Shelford described only five new species of phasmids. All were from South America and the descriptions were 1913, shortly after his death, published. It was the following types:

• Autolyca affinis ( Shelford, 1913: 61, pl 3.7 & 3.8.. )
• Autolyca riveti ( Shelford, 1913: 60, pl 3.6.. )
• Libethra intermedia ( Shelford, 1913: 61 )
• Ocnophila nana ( Shelford, 1913: 61 )
• Ocnophila riveti ( Shelford, 1913: 62 )

In his book A Naturalist in Borneo, Shelford found some references to phasmids (page 147-155, 215, & 315). Shelfords observations of insects from Borneo, he led from both wild and captive species. He commented on the behavior of many phasmids during night time and refers to its observations on " some ( phasmids ), which I kept in confinement ."

He then goes on to say that "most of the winged Phasmidae, especially some with gorgeous colored wings, feed or feed on diurnal least as willing daytime and at night when they are in captivity ." He makes some observations on the eggs of phasmids in Borneo, revealing that he, while in England on his book writes a small colony of Indian stick insects has, " which multiply unisexual for several generations."

Works

Shelfords most famous work, his book A Naturalist in Borneo ( Engl. " A naturalist in Borneo" ), appeared in 1916, some years after his death. It was completed by his Oxford colleague Professor Edward B. Poulton. The first edition of the book gained a high profile in 1985 and reissued in paperback by Oxford University Press.

The publish biography of Bragg Shelford deals mainly with his work on phasmids ( stick insects ). Further, written by EB Poulton biographical details can be found in the introduction to the book, A Naturalist in Borneo.