William Miles Maskell

William Miles Maskell (5 October 1839 – 1 May 1898) was a New Zealand farmer, politician and entomologist.

Early life Born in Mapperton, Dorset, England, to Mary Scott and William Maskell, an Anglican clergyman, he attended school at St Mary's College in Oscott, Birmingham, and later in Paris, before being commissioned an ensign in the 11th Regiment of Foot with which he served for just under two years.

He first came to New Zealand to Lyttelton, in 1860 aboard . He eventually became involved in the political campaigns of Frederick Weld and Charles Clifford. He returned to England sometime between 1861 and 1863, but returned by September 1865, purchasing a property in Broadleaze near Leithfield, Canterbury a short while after.

He became registrar of the newly formed University of New Zealand in 1876 and held this position until his death. and then in the 1876 general election, he was unsuccessful against John Evans Brown. After this, he took no further active part in politics.

Entomology

Around 1873, Maskell became interested in entomology and wrote a book, An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand, which mostly concerned pests in the Coccoidea family. Later, as his work became more well known, he was sent insect samples from a variety of locations, including Asia, Fiji, Hawaii and the Americas, which resulted in him proposing over 330 species names. In 1906, at the request of Dr C.L Marlett, Assistant Chief of the United States Bureau of Entomology, the collection was loaned to the Bureau for study by Emily R. Morrison. The collection was returned to the New Zealand Department of Agriculture in 1922 and is now housed at the New Zealand Arthropod Collection.

Maskell particularly liked studying the internal anatomy of insects, probably due to his fascination with physiology and microscopy, and his work was also unique in that he studied immature stages of males and females as well as the mature females. In its native Australia this pest was kept in check (so F. S. Crawford found) by a dipterous fly Cryptochetum iceryae which injected its eggs into the scale insect, which was then devoured by the resultant larvae.

Maskell also studied arthropods, protozoa and microscopic algae, publishing more than 70 research papers on these topics. He was also a strong opponent of Darwinism and his arguments helped to shape several scientific debates of the time.