South African zoologist and malacologist
William Macnae, 1914-1975, was a South African zoologist and malacologist. He was a Scottish born-and-educated marine ecologist and moved to South Africa in 1948.
Career.
Macnae wrote the Crustacea section of the report entitled "Natural History of Canna and Sanday, Inner Hebrides: a report upon the Glasgow University Canna Expeditions, 1936 and 1937" published by the University of Glasgow in 1939 detailing the two visits by members of Glasgow University to Canna, Scotland, in June and July 1936 and 1937. In this report is the only British record of "Chydorus gibbus" (Lilljeborg), belonging to the sub-order Anomopoda.
In 1951 Macnae was appointed Lecturer in Zoology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa under direction of Joseph Omer-Cooper and later Denis William (Jakes) Ewer. Under Omer-Cooper most research in the department of Zoology had been of an entomological nature, however Macnae was able to publish important descriptions of some South African opisthobranch gastropods. Macnae resigned in 1956 to move to the Zoology department of the University of the Witwatersrand.
The first comprehensive assessment of mangrove swamps in South Africa was conducted by Macnae in 1963. He personally conducted first hand observations of these mangrove ecosystems.
Professional memberships.
From 1950 Macnae was a member of the Malacological Society of London. The membership register from 1963 has the following entry:
Personal life.
Macnae married Marion Meason Walgate, who was lecturer in botany at the University of Cape Town and later an assistant at the Charles Moss Herbarium of the University of the Witwatersrand where William Macnae was a professor.
Eponyms.
Species named his honor include:
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) lists 24 marine species named by Macnae.
Works.
Papers and books published by MacNae include:
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;
External links.
 publications indexed by Google Scholar