Alexander Callender Purdie (25 December 1824 – 24 June 1899) was a New Zealand naturalist and botanist.
[1] After his schooling he moved to Glasgow acquiring a trade as a wire worker which he pursued in England and Scotland for several years, while also following his interest in natural history.
[1] He emigrated with his wife Ellen in 1860 from Glasgow to New Zealand on the ship “Pladda”, and settled in Dunedin.
[1] Purdie was a foundation member of both the Otago Institute in 1869, of which he was elected Curator and Librarian in 1873, and the Dunedin Field Naturalists’ Club, in 1872.
[2] His son Alex Purdie (c.1861 - 1905) collected the type specimen of the moth species Ichneutica purdii which was named in his honour by Richard William Fereday.