Claude Morley (22 June 1874 – 13 November 1951) was an English antiquary and entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera. He has been described by

Peter Marren Peter Marren (born 1950) is a British writer, journalist, and naturalist. He has written over 20 books about British nature, including ''Chasing the Ghost: My Search for all the Wild Flowers of Britain'' (2018), an account of a year-long quest ...

as "Suffolk's best-known entomologist". Morley was born at Astley Bank in Blackheath in 1874 and educated at

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fl ...

before attending King's School,

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and later

Epsom College Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orph ...

. After living on the

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in his father's house at Cowes, he moved in 1892 to

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

where he worked with

John Ellor Taylor John Ellor Taylor (1837, Levenshulme, England–1895, Ipswich, England) was an English popular science writer, journalist and museum curator. Early life The eldest son of William Taylor (died 1864), foreman in a Lancashire cotton-factory, and ...

, then Curator of the

Ipswich Museum Ipswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk. It was historically the leading regional museum in Suffolk, housing collections drawn from both the fo ...

. He married in 1904, living at Monk Soham until his death in 1951. He had no radio, telephone, or electricity in his house. E.A. Elliott was a close friend, as was Arthur Chitty. Morley worked first on Coleoptera, then Hemiptera and then Ichneumonidae. His magnum opus was the five volume Ichneumons of Great Britain (1903–1914). Morley's collection of mainly Suffolk material covering the period 1898–1951 is in Ipswich Museum. It occupies around 260 drawers. There are Cerambycids bearing his name in the Kauffmann collection at Manchester. Morley was a Fellow of the

Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of Londo ...

1896. In 1929 he was one of the founding members of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society, and an editor of ''Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists' Trust'', the society's journal. Among pre-1950 British entomologists, Morley showed a relative interest in Irish fauna. He also wrote poetry under the pseudonym of Maude Clorley.

Works

Hemiptera

Hymenoptera

* *On the Ichneumonidous Group Tryphonides schizodonti with descriptions of new species (1905) *A description of the superior wing of the Hymenoptera, with a view to giving a simpler and more certain nomenclature to the alary system of Jurine.''Trans. Ent. Soc. London'', 1909: 439–447, figs. (1909) *''Catalogue of British Hymenoptera of the family Chalcididae'', 74pp. Publisher? (1910). *''A revision of the Ichneumonidae based on the coll. in the British Museum'' Publisher? (1912-1914). *(1908-1911)'' Ichneumonologia Britannica'' (4 Volumes) London *On in some South African Ichneumonidae the collection of the South African Museum.''Annals of the South African Museum'',17:191-229. (1917) * Fauna of British India Hymenoptera Vol. 3. Ichneumones Deltoidei (1913) *The Percy Sladen trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean (Seychelles) in 1905. 12.Ichneumonidae (1912)

Coleoptera

* Supplement, 1915. The work listed 1783 species and the supplement 237. Morley also wrote many articles in the Entomologist's monthly magazine, ''Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation'', and other periodicals, and he was on the editorial staff of ''The Entomologist'' from 1909.

References

*Anonym 1951: orley, C.- Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (4) 87 327 *Nash,D. A little-known important recorder of Suffolk insects, Ernest Arthur Elliott (1850-1936)’ ''White Admiral, Newsletter of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Soc''., 65, 2006, pp. 23–30

External links