Eliza Fanny Staveley

Eliza Fanny Staveley (1831–1903), published as E.F. Staveley, was a British entomologist, arachnologist, and author. Her work British Insects was favourably reviewed by Alfred Russel Wallace in Nature.

Life

During the 1860s, Staveley conducted anatomical studies of spiders and hymenopterous insects, focusing particularly on the study of hooks on insect wings and teeth in spiders. Entomologist Frederick Smith, who worked in the zoology department of the British Museum, assisted Staveley in providing a collection of wings for study. Staveley was an associate of naturalist John Edward Gray, That book "continued to be the mainstay for naturalists and collectors for at least 60 years after publication" and "can arguably be regarded as the first, true field guide to British spiders".

Eliza Fanny Staveley died in 1903 in Tunbridge Wells, aged 72.

Works As listed on the Biodiversity Heritage Library:

'Observations on the neuration of the hind wings of Hymenopterous insects: and on the hooks which join the fore and hind wings together in flight' (1860) 'Notes on the Form of the Comb (Pecten) in Different Andrenidae and Apidae, and on the Alar Hooks of the Species of Sphecodes and Halictus' (1862) in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London British spiders: an introduction to the study of the Araneidae of Great Britain and Ireland (1866) 'Note on the presence of teeth on the Maxillæ of Spiders' (1866) in The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology Vol. 17, No. 3 British Insects: a familiar description of the form, structure, habits, and transformations of insects (1871)