William Doherty (May 15, 1857 in Cincinnati – May 25, 1901 in Nairobi) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who specialised in

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

and later also collected birds for the Natural History Museum at Tring. He died of dysentery while in Nairobi.

Travels

From 1877 to 1881, before he became a collector, he traveled widely in Europe, the Middle East and thence to Persia. His entomological collecting activities commenced in earnest in 1882 while in South Asia. He collected butterflies in India, Burma, the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

, Nicobar, Siam, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea and British

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

and described many new species. After a visit to

Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in Hamburg, Germany on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrator Claudia Bernadine E ...

at Tring in 1895, he was recruited by Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, who came to regarded him as his best bird collector. While collecting in Uganda, he fell ill and was carried to a hospital by his Lepcha collectors.

Collections

His collections are shared between the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Eponyms

Many of the birds he collected for Lord Rothschild were named after him, including

Doherty's bushshrike Doherty's bushshrike (''Telophorus dohertyi'') is a colourful but skulking species of bush-shrike of the family Malaconotidae which is found in forest habitats in north-central Africa. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the American ...

''Malaconotus dohertyi'',

red-naped fruit dove The red-naped fruit dove (''Ptilinopus dohertyi'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Sumba. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destr ...

''Ptilinopus dohertyi'',

Sumba cicadabird The pale-shouldered cicadabird or Sumba cicadabird (''Edolisoma dohertyi'') is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is endemic to the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland ...

''Coracina dohertyi'' and

crested white-eye The crested white-eye or crested ibon (''Heleia dohertyi'') is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is endemic to the Lesser Sunda Islands (Sumbawa and Flores). Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest an ...

''Lophozosterops dohertyi''.

References

External links

BHL
Hartert, Ernst (1896) ''An account of the collections of birds made by Mr. William Doherty in the Eastern Archipelago'' London.
Obituary
by Ernst Hartert (1901) in ''Novitates Zoologicae'', vol. 8, p. 494f. 1857 births 1901 deaths Deaths from dysentery Infectious disease deaths in Kenya American lepidopterists 19th-century American zoologists 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub