Robert W. C. Shelford

Robert Walter Campbell Shelford (3 August 1872 – 22 June 1912), was a British entomologist and museum administrator and naturalist, with a special interest in entomology and insect mimicry; he specialised in cockroaches and also did some significant work on stick insects.

He became more mobile after an operation but was never able to participate in active sports as a child, although as an adult he enjoyed playing golf.

In April 1909 he slipped and the tubercular disease flared up and severely limited his work throughout the final three years of his life.

These include one Bornean mantis: Deroplatys shelfordi Kirby, 1903, one Bornean phasmid: Baculofractum shelfordi Bragg, 2005, two genera of cockroaches: Shelfordella Adelung, 1910 and Shelfordina Hebard, 1929, and 17 species of cockroaches.

He also commented that "Phasmidae, notwithstanding their wonderful protective resemblance to sticks and leaves, are the staple form of diet of Trogons" [A family of birds].

In his book, A Naturalist in Borneo,[11] Shelford includes several references to phasmids (pages 147-155, 215, & 315).

He makes several observations about eggs of phasmids in Borneo, and also reveals that he was keeping in England "a small colony of an "Indian Stick-Insect that has bred parthenogenetically for several generations" at the time he was writing his book.

Shelford's best-known publication, his book A Naturalist in Borneo, was published in 1916, several years after his death, having been completed by his Oxford colleague, Edward Poulton.

The book was popular when originally published, and was reprinted in paperback by Oxford University Press in 1985.