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 1879 Kirby joined the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) 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 also did important work on orthopteroid insects including a three volume Catalogue of all known species (1904, 1906, 1910). He retired in 1909.
A short biography of Kirby, with particular reference to his work on phasmids, was published by P. E. Bragg in 2007.[3]
Evolution
Kirby was an advocate of theistic evolution. In his book Evolution and Natural Theology, he argued that evolution and theism are compatible. He noted that creationism was scientifically untenable and refuted its arguments.[4] He viewed nature as a "vast self-adjusting machine".[5]
Publications
Entomology
Manual of European Butterflies, on the plan of Stainton's manual of British Butterflies and Moths. 1862.
A synonymic catalogue of diurnal Lepidoptera. 1871.
A synonymic catalogue of diurnal Lepidoptera (Supplement). 1877.
Catalogue of the collection of diurnal Lepidoptera formed by the late William Chapman Hewitson, of Otlands, Walton-on Thames; and bequeathed by him to the British Museum. 1879.
European butterflies and moths ... Based upon Berge's "Schmetterlingsbuch". 1882.
g. f., H. (1892), "A synonymic catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera. (Moths)", Nature, 1 Sphinges and Bombyces (1195): 487, Bibcode:1892Natur..46..487G, doi:10.1038/046487a0, S2CID 3985940
A Hand-book to the Order Lepidoptera
Butterflies (Part.1), vol. 1, 1896
Butterflies (Part.2), vol. 2, 1896
Moths (Part.1), vol. 3, 1897
Moths (Part.2), vol. 4, 1897
Moths (Part.3), vol. 5, 1897
"Marvels of Ant Life", Nature, 59 (1516): 52, 1898, Bibcode:1898Natur..59T..52., doi:10.1038/059052f0, S2CID 4017242
A synonymic catalogue of Neuroptera Odonata, or dragon-flies. With an appendix of fossil species, 1890
Familiar butterflies and moths, 1901
"The Butterflies and moths of Europe", Nature, 69 (1783), Cassell & Co. Ltd., London: 197–198, 1903, Bibcode:1903Natur..69R.197., doi:10.1038/069197c0, hdl:2027/uc1.31175035213779, S2CID 38721803
A Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, British Museum (Natural History)
Orthoptera, Euplexoptera, Cursoria, et Gressoria, vol. 1, 1904
Orthoptera Saltatoria (Part.1) - Achetidae et Phasgonuridae, 1906
Orthoptera Saltatoria (Part.2) - Locustidae vel Acridiidae, vol. 3, 1910
"Orthoptera (Acridiide)", The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma, 1914
Hubner, Jacob; Geyer, Carl (1908), Zuträge zur Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge : bestehend in Bekundigung einzelner Fliegmuster neuer oder rarer nichteuropäischer Gattungen, vol. 1 , index and introductions
Hubner, Jacob (1908), Zuträge zur Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge : bestehend in Bekundigung einzelner Fliegmuster neuer oder rarer nichteuropäischer Gattungen, vol. 2 , index and introductions
Other biology
Evolution and Natural Theology, 1883
British flowering plants, 1906
Literary
The new Arabian nights. Select tales, not included by Galland or Lane, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott & co., 1883 , translator and editor
Burton, Richard F., ed. (1886), "Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights and Their Imitations", The Nights (appendix), vol. 10
The Hero of Esthonia, and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country, 1895 , compiled and translated from Estonian and German
Kalevala: The Land of Heroes, vol. 1, 1907 , translator
Kalevala: The Land of Heroes, vol. 2, 1907 , translator
Notes
^Who's Who, 1914, p. xxii
^ a bRao, B.R. 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, ISSN 0966-0011
^Kirby 1883, pp. 15–29.
^England, Richard (2003). Design after Darwin, 1860-1900. Vol. 2. Thoemmes. p. 17. ISBN 978-1843710813.
Further reading
The Natural History Museum at South Kensington by William T. Stearn ISBN 0-434-73600-7
External links
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