Frederic Moore FZS (13 May 1830 – 10 May 1907) was a British entomologist and illustrator. He produced six volumes of ''Lepidoptera Indica'' and a catalogue of the birds in the collection of the East India Company. It has been said that Moore was born at 33 Bruton Street, but that may be incorrect given that this was the address of the menagerie and office of the Zoological Society of London from 1826 to 1836. Moore was appointed an assistant in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

Museum London from 31 May 1848 on a "disestablished basis" and became a temporary writer and then an assistant curator at the East India Museum with a pension of £330 per annum from 31 December 1879. He had a daughter Rosa Martha Moore. He began compiling ''Lepidoptera indica'' (1890–1913), a major work on the butterflies of the

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

in 10 volumes, which was completed after his death by Charles Swinhoe. Many of the plates were produced by his son while some others were produced by

E C Knight E. C. Knight (1879 fl. -1915 fl.) was an English illustrator. He undertook zoological entomological and botanical drawing, lithography, and chromolithography for William Weekes Fowler, Frederic Moore, Edmund Reitter and Emily Mary Bowdler Sharp ...

and John Nugent Fitch. Many species of butterfly were described by him in this work. "Moore entered the doors of entomology by way of his artistic abilities. Dr. T. Horsfield (1777–1859), long associated with the East India Museum, required someone capable of doing natural history drawings and, through an introduction, Frederic Moore obtained the post. Thus began a lifetime association with Indian Lepidoptera" Moore's son F. C. Moore was also an artist and prepared many of the plates in '' Lepidoptera Indica''. Moore's brother T. J. Moore was a curator at the Liverpool Museum for forty years and his son Thomas Francis Moore was an osteologist at the National Museum at Melbourne. The colours of Indian butterflies, based on the plates in the ''Lepidoptera Indica'' were studied by J.C. Mottram in 1918. Moore was an associate of the Linnean Society of London, a member of the Entomological Society of London, a corresponding member of the

Entomological Society of Stettin The Entomological Society of Stettin (german: Entomologischer Verein zu Stettin) or Stettin Entomological Society, based in Stettin (Szczecin), was one of the leading entomological societies of the 19th century. Most German entomologists were memb ...

and of the Entomological Society of the Netherlands. His other works included ''A Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the East-India Company'' (1854–58, with Thomas Horsfield) and ''The Lepidoptera of Ceylon'' (1880–87).

References

External links

* *
''Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Expedition''
* ''Lepidoptera Indica''. Scanned volume
12345678910Works by Frederic Moore online at Biodiversity Heritage Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Frederic 1830 births 1907 deaths British lepidopterists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Naturalists of British India