Person
Knight, Arthur Ian (Ian) (1930 - 2021)
- Born
- 19 January 1930
Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, South Africa - Died
- 17 April 2021
Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia - Occupation
- Architect, Insect collector and Lepidopterist
Summary
Ian Knight was an architect who practiced in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and, after moving to Queensland in 1978, in Brisbane. Before coming to Australia, he was an enthusiastic collector of butterflies: his collection of over 400 species came to Australia with him. This interest continued from his early days in Queensland. He quickly made contact with local entomologists, including Donald Sands and Murdoch de Baar, with whom he was often in the field. In 1979 he met Trevor Lambkin, the start of a collecting friendship that lasted over 40 years. Knight and Lambkin made their first visit to the Torres Strait: Thursday (Waiben) and Prince of Wales (Muralug) Islands, and Bamaga in 1983. Together they made many visits to Torres Strait, the last in 2016 to Mer Island. Knight retired in 1995 and moved to Tasmania, where he continued his entomological pursuits and became expert in Tasmanian butterflies. In the late 1990s he donated the bulk of his collection, including his south African specimens, to the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (subsequently transferred to the Queensland Museum). Knight and Lambkin built a collection of over 12,000 butterfly specimens from the Torres Strait, as well as from across Australia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. This nationally significant collection was donated to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in 2019. The fossil marine mollusc Trigonia knighti, which Knight discovered as a child, and the endemic New South Wales butterfly Ocybadistes knightorum were named in his honour.
Details
Chronology
- 1978
- Life event - Migrated to Queensland with his family
- 1983
- Career event - First collecting trip to Thursday Island, with Trevor Lambkin
- 1995
- Life event - Retired to Tasmania
- 2003
- Career event - Collecting trip to Christmas Island
- 2006
- Career event - Collecting trip to Norfolk Island
- 2016
- Career event - Final collecting trip to Mer Island, Torres Strait
- 2019
- Life event - Lambkin-Knight butterfly collection donated to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Related entries
Colleague
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Lambkin, T. A.; and Knight, A. I., 'Butterflies recorded from the Torres Strait and northern Cape York Peninsula regions during July 1983', News Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Queensland, 11 (1983), 98-103. Details
- Lambkin, T. A.; and Knight, A. I., 'Butterflies recorded from Murray Island, Torres Strait, Queensland', Australian entomological magazine, 17 (1990), 101-12. Details
- Lambkin, T. A.; and Knight, A. I., 'New Australian butterfly records (Lepidoptera) from Saibai and Dauan Islands, Torres Strait, Queensland', Australian entomologist, 32 (2005), 49-54. Details
- Lambkin, Trevor A., 'From South Africa to Torres Strait: the life and legacy of Arthur Ian Knight (1930 - 2021)', Australian entomologist, 48 (2) (2021), 119-30. Details
- Maynard, David and Fearn, Simon, 'A precious gift the Lambkin-Knight butterfly collection donated to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery', Tasmanian Naturalist, 143 (2021), 1-11. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 5 July 2022, Last modified: 29 July 2025