John Frederick Whitlie Quekett (b. London, 1849, d. Durban 5 July 1913) was a conchologist and museum curator who worked in South Africa, having emigrated there in 1871. He was the curator of the Durban Natural History Museum in June 1895. He retired in 1909 and died in Durban in 1913.
Quekket was born in London in 1849, his father was Professor John Thomas Quekett, after whom the Microscopy Club, is named, [1] and his mother was Isabella Mary Anne Scott. He was educated in London. [2]
Quekket emigrated to South Africa in 1871. At some time in the early 1880s he was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. In 1886 he was tasked by the Natal Society in Pietermaritzburg to organise their collections and in 1888 was recorded as the honorary secretary of the Society’s Museum and Science Department. By 1891 he was the secretary and the first curator of the society’s museum, an institution which eventually became part of the Natal Museum. at this time he was employed by the civil service of Natal from 1889 and worked for its Forestry Department from its inauguration in 1891. [2]
Quekett was appointed as curator of the Durban Natural History Museum in June 1895. He also the secretary and treasurer of the management committee of the museum. declining health forced him to retire from the museum in 1909. He specialised in conchology, and alongside H.C. Burnup, he undertook many field trips to collect shells. Quekket and Burnup were the first conchologists to retrieve shells from the intestines of the musselcracker seabream (Sparodon durbanensis). The shells were obtained fishmonger in Durban called Alex ("Lexy") Anderson. Quekett also had an interest in moths. [2]
Quekket joined the South African Philosophical Society in 1899 and was still a member in 1908 when it changed into the Royal Society of South Africa. [2]
Quekett died in Durban on 5 July 1913. [2]
Quekett is honoured in the names of the following species: [2]
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Fundulopanchax is a genus of killifish living in near-coastal fresh water streams and lakes in Western Africa. All species were previously biologically classified as members of the genus Aphyosemion, with the exception of Fundulopanchax avichang, F. gresensi and F. kamdemi, which were all scientifically described after the major revision of the Aphyosemion complex.
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Phillip Clarence Heemstra was an American-South African ichthyologist. He was born in Melrose Park, Illinois, United States as the son of Clarence William Heemstra and his wife, Lydia. He attended school in Ottawa, Illinois, and completed a B.Sc. Zoology in 1963 at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Illinois, as well as his MSc degree (1968) and doctorate (1974) in marine biology at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. He moved to live in South Africa in 1978.