William Miles Maskell (5 October 1839 – 1 May 1898) was a New Zealand farmer, politician andentomologist.
Born inMapperton, Dorset, England to Mary Scott andWilliam Maskell, anAnglican clergyman, he attended school at St Mary's College inOscott, Birmingham, and later in Paris, before being commissioned anensign in the11th Regiment of Foot with which he served for just under two years.[1][2]
He first came to New Zealand toLyttelton, in 1860 aboardWilliam Miles. He eventually became involved in the political campaigns ofFrederick Weld andCharles Clifford. He returned to England sometime between 1861 and 1863, but returned by September 1865, purchasing a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) property in Broadleaze nearLeithfield, Canterbury a short while after.[3]
He became registrar of the newly formedUniversity of New Zealand in 1876 and held this position until his death.[3]
Maskell was married to Lydia Cooper Brown on 15 September 1874 in two ceremonies, oneCatholic and oneProtestant. After Lydia's death in 1883, he married Alice Ann McClean in 1886.[3]
In 1866, Maskell was elected to represent Sefton on theCanterbury Provincial Council, a position which he held until the provinces were abolished in 1876. He also served as provincial secretary and treasurer during the last year on the council.[3]
Maskell contested theAshley electorate twice for a seat in the New Zealand parliament. On both occasions, first in the1871 general election,[4] and then in the1876 general election,[5] he was unsuccessful againstJohn Evans Brown. After this, he took no further active part in politics.[6]
Around 1873, Maskell became interested inentomology and wrote a book,An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand, which mostly concerned pests in theCoccoidea 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.[3] Maskell's personal collection of Coccoidea specimens which was regarded as scientifically significant and was acquired by the New Zealand Department of Agriculture.[7] 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 byEmily R. Morrison.[8] The collection was returned to the New Zealand Department of Agriculture in 1922 and is now housed at theNew Zealand Arthropod Collection.[9]
Maskell particularly liked studying the internalanatomy of insects, probably due to his fascination withphysiology andmicroscopy, and his work was also unique in that he studied immature stages of males and females as well as the mature females.[3]
After experimenting withkerosene application, Maskell became an advocate ofbiological control of pests, which involves finding their naturalpredators. He helpedAlbert Koebele of theUnited States Department of Agriculture collect vedalia "ladybird" beetles (Rodolia cardinalis), a predator ofcottony cushion scale, which had become a devastating pest of Californiancitrus farms.[10] In its native Australia this pest was kept in check (soF. S. Crawford found) by a dipterous flyCryptochetum iceryae which injected its eggs into the scale insect, which was then devoured by the resultantlarvae.
Maskell also studiedarthropods,protozoa and microscopicalgae, publishing more than 70 research papers on these topics. He was also a strong opponent ofDarwinism and his arguments helped to shape several scientific debates of the time.[3]
Maskell died inWellington on 1 May 1898 at his home from complications that arose after a serious operation. He was survived by his second wife, and he did not have any children.[11]
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