Leslie Desmond Edward Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald

Leslie Desmond Edward Foster-Vesey-Fitzgerald MBE (7 June 1909-3/4 May 1974), was an Irish-born entomologist, ornithologist, conservationist, and plant collector.

Life and education Leslie Desmond Edward Foster-Vesey-Fitzgerald was born on 7 June 1909 in Dunleer, County Louth, Ireland. His parents were John Joseph Leslie Foster-Vesey-Fitzgerald and Mary Edith (née Glennie).

Career In 1932, he became Associate of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad (AICTA). From 1933 to 1936, he conducted research work on biological control of insect pests on sugar cane in Brazil, British Guiana and the British West Indies. From 1936 to 1939, he did research on biological control of insect pests on coconut palms in the Seychelles, Madagascar and the coastal East Africa. From 1939 to 1941, he was entomologist at the Rubber Research Institute in Malaya.

His plant collections are on display in the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Botanische Staatssammlung Munich, the NU Herbarium, University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, and in the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden of Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Honours Vesey-Fitzgerald's burrowing skink (Janetaescincus veseyfitzgeraldi ) from the Seychelles is named in his honour.

Selected works 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. Journal of Ecology 43:477-489 1957: The Vegetation of the Red Sea coast north of Jedda. Saudi Arabia. Journal of Ecology 45:547-562. 1957: The vegetation of Central and Eastern Arabia. Journal of Ecology 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. House