- Lesley Desmond Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald
Leslie Desmond Edward Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald MBE (born 7 June 1910 in
Dunleer ,Ireland ; died 3 May 1974 inNairobi ,Kenya ), often nicknamed as Vesey and known by the Africans as Bwana Mungosi, was an Irish-born entomologist, ornithologist, conservationist, and plant collector.In the 1950s Vesey-Fitzgerald has worked as Senior Scientific Officer at the Anti-Locust Research Centre in Abercorn, Northern
Rhodesia . Subsequently he became an ecologist and conservationist in the National parks of Tanzania where he experimented with an electric fence in theArusha National Park . He further went on ornithological, entomological, and botanical surveys toKuwait ,Oman ,Saudi Arabia ,Tanzania ,Zambia ,South Africa , theMascarenes , theSeychelles , andTrinidad and Tobago . His plant collections are on display in theNatural History Museum , theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew , the Botanische Staatssammlung Munich, the NU Herbarium,University of KwaZulu-Natal , theMuséum National d'Histoire Naturelle , and in the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden ofAvondale, Harare ,Zimbabwe .The
Vesey-Fitzgerald's Burrowing Skink ("Janetaescincus veseyfitzgeraldi") from the Seychelles is named in his honour.Works (selected)
*1940: "On the Vegetation of Seychelles"
*1955: "The Vegetation of the Outbreak Areas of the Red Locust (Nomadacris Septemfasciata Serv.) in Tanganyika and Northern Rhodesia"
*1955: "Vegetation of the Red Sea coast south of Jedda, Saudi-Arabia". J. of Ecology 43:477-489
*1957: "The Vegetation of the Red Sea coast north of Jedda. Saudi Arabia". J. of Ecol. 45:547-562.
*1957: "The vegetation of Central and Eastern Arabia". J. Ecol. 45_779-798
*1958: "The Snakes of Northern Rhodesia and the Tanganyika Borderlands" Brown Knight & Truscott London
*1963: "Annotated List of Grasses Collected in the Congo Drainage Basin of Northern Rhodesia and Tanganyika"
*1963: "Central African Grasslands"
*1973: "East African Grasslands" East African Pub. HouseReferences
*Ray Desmond, Christine Ellwood: Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists: Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters, and Garden Designers. CRC Press, 1994 ISBN 0850668433
External links
* [http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00650.html Short info about Desmond Vesey-Fitzgerald]
* [http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.AP.PERSON.BM000042502&pgs= Entry for Desmond Vesey-Fitzgerald at Aluka]
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