William Sharp Macleay
| William Sharp Macleay | |
|---|---|
Mitchell Library, NSW, before 1865
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| Born |
21 July 1792 London |
| Died | 26 January 1865 (aged 72) Sydney, Australia |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | civil servant |
| Known for | entomologist |
William Sharp Macleay or McLeay (21 July 1792 – 26 January 1865) was a British civil servant and entomologist.
After graduating, he worked for the British embassy in Paris, following his interest in natural history at the same time, publishing essays on insects and corresponding with Charles Darwin.
Macleay moved to Havana, Cuba, where he was in turn commissioner of arbitration, commissary judge and then judge. Retiring from this work, he emigrated to Australia where he continued to collect insects and studied marine natural history.
Macleay was born in London, eldest son of Alexander Macleay who named him for his then business partner, fellow wine merchant William Sharp. He attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge graduating with honours in 1814. He was then appointed attaché to the British embassy at Paris, and secretary to the board for liquidating British claims on the French government, and following his father in taking an interest in natural history became friendly with Georges Cuvier, and other celebrated men of science.
Macleay's principal work was Horae Entomologicae; or, Essays on the Annulose Animals, parts 1-2 (1819–1821). The first part of Horae Entomologicae included a reexamination of Linnaeus' genus Scarabaeus (twelfth edition of Systema Naturae, 1767) within the taxonomic context of Pierre Andre Latreille's "Lamellicornes" becoming the first monographer of what today is the family Scarabaeidae. He also published Annulosa Javanica or an Attempt to illustrate the Natural Affinities and Analogies of the Insects collected in Java by T. Horsfield, no. 1 (London, 1825).
Other minor publications on insects including Remarks on the devastation occasioned by Hylobius abietis in fir plantations in the Zoological Journal and several notes in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. Macleay sent many insects to Frederick William Hope, which are now preserved in the Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford University. He was also a correspondent of Charles Darwin, though he disagreed fervently with the latter's theories of evolution.
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