Claude W. Fuller (1 October 1872

Castle Hill, New South Wales Castle Hill is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, located 34 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and 9.5 kilometres north of Parramatta. It is within the Hills District, New South Wales, Hills District regi ...

– 5 November 1928

Lourenço Marques Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

) graduated from Australia's Melbourne University. He worked as an entomologist in Australia but worked more extensively in South and Southern Africa. At age 19, Fuller was first employed as a vegetable pathologist in New South Wales and transferred to Western Australia six years later. In 1898 he emigrated to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

where he filled the post of Government entomologist. The following year he became the first Government entomologist in

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

where his brief became the control and eradication of subtropical pests. He widened the ambit of his post by doing a survey of local fungus diseases and plant parasites, and performed valuable work on the control of locusts. During his stay in Natal he devoted a large amount of time to the control and extermination of orchard pests and noxious weeds. He became one of the pioneers of termite taxonomy in Natal, continuing the work of the Swede

Bror Yngve Sjöstedt Bror Yngve Sjöstedt (August 3, 1866, Hjo – 1948) was a Swedish naturalist. Sjöstedt gained his degree and his doctorate in 1896 at the University of Uppsala. He worked as an assistant in Statens Entomologiska Anstalt from 1897 to 1902, bec ...

Maize streak virus Maize streak virus (MSV) is a virus primarily known for causing maize streak disease (MSD) in its major host, and which also infects over 80 wild and domesticated grasses. It is an insect-transmitted pathogen of maize in the genus ''Mastrevirus' ...

(MSV) was first observed by Fuller and described in his 1901 report as “mealie variegation" ('mealie' being the South African word for maize). It is widespread in Africa and Indian Ocean islands and is one of the continent's serious crop diseases. The virus is spread by insects and shows as pale yellow or yellow-white leaves, leading to stunted plants that cannot not produce cobs. His studies of the

Tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies) are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Gloss ...

led him to believe that the existence of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve and the Mkhuze Game Reserves in Zululand and the founding of the

Kruger Park Kruger National Park () is a national park in South Africa covering an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the country's northeast. It extends from north to south and from east to west. The administrative headquarters are i ...

in the Transvaal lowveld, would create a corridor facilitating the resurgence of the fly from

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

and

Portuguese East Africa Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

. Fuller enjoyed the support of prominent veterinarians such as Arnold Theiler and Petrus du Toit.''Tropical Medicine and Animal Diseases : Onderstepoort and the Development of Veterinary Science in South Africa 1908–1950'' -Karen Brown
/ref> In 1904 he published a book dealing with the cultivation of fruit trees in Natal. In the same year he went to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

to bring back a parasite to control fruit flies which had become a major pest in South African orchards. From 1910 he served as Assistant Chief of the Division of Entomology for the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...

, retiring in 1926 and working as entomologist in

. He was killed in a car accident in 1928 outside the Mozambique town of Lourenço Marques, the present-day

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

Bibliography

*''The termites of South Africa'' – Claude Fuller, (South African Biological Society, 1921) *''Observations on some South African termites'' – Claude Fuller,
Annals of the Natal Museum, 1919
*''Tsetse in the Transvaal and Surrounding Territories – An Historical Review'' – Claude Fuller,
Division of Entomology, 1923
*''Louis Trigardt's Trek across the Drakensberg, 1837–1838'' – Claude Fuller, edited by Leo Fouché (The Van Riebeeck Society, 1932)

External links

''Notes and Descriptions of some Species of Western Australian Coccidæ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller (entomologist), Claude Colony of New South Wales people Cape Colony naturalists South African entomologists Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society 1872 births 1928 deaths Road incident deaths in Mozambique