Biography
Dr William Frederick Purcell (1866-1919) a zoologist who joined the South African Museum in 1896 who received his D.Phil in Berlin in 1895 was also an unsuccessful applicant for the Directorship of the South African Museum in 1895 but accepted an appointment as "First Assistant" in 1896.
His father was an Irishman who settled in South Africa and his mother belonged to the Hertzog family. Although he was born in England and partly educated in Germany, Purcell's background was completely South African, and he is rightly regarded as one of the earliest South African scientists. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the Arachnida, and most of his collecting and research dealt with this group in which he was a pioneer in South Africa.
Publication activity
New taxa described
Described Taxa Distribution
18 type localities across 4 genera
Papers (7)
Araneae. In Schultze, L. Forschungsreise in Südafrika, 1(2). Denkschr. med. naturw. Ges. Jena 13.
In Schultze, L., Forschungsreise in Südafrika, 1(2). Denkschr. med. naturw. Ges. Jena 13: 203-246 [p. 215, pl. 11, f. 3].
Descriptions of new genera and species of South African spiders. Trans. S. Afric. phil. Soc. 15:115-173.
New South African spiders of the families Migidae, Ctenizidae, Barychelidae Dipluridae, and Lycosidae. Annals of the South African Museum 3: 69-142.
New Arachnida collected by Mr. S. C. Cronwright Schreiner at Hanover, Cape Colony. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 3: 13-40 [p. 30, pl. 1, f. 9].
New South African trap-door spiders of the family Ctenizidae in the collection of the South African Museum. Trans. S. Afric. phil. Soc. 11.
On the South African Theraphosidae or "Baviaan" spiders, in the collection of the South African Museum. Trans. S. Afric. Mus. 11: 319-347 [p. 338].