George Taylor Porritt

George Taylor Porritt (1848–1927) was an English wool merchant, naturalist and lepidopterist from Huddersfield, Yorkshire. He is best known for his work on the effects of industrial pollution on the changes in frequency of melanin in populations of the peppered moth,[1] which has since become a prominent case study in understanding the effects of pollution on animal populations.[2]

He attended Huddersfield College alongside future prime minister H. H. Asquith. He became a prominent authority on entomology in Great Britain and was involved in a substantial number of publications and societies. He was the re-founder and co-editor of The Naturalist, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and President of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union in 1900.[3] His collection of insects was donated to the Tolson Museum after his death.[4]

  1. ^ Fryer, Geoffrey (2010). "George Taylor Porritt's 19th and early 20th century observations on industrial pollution in moths in South West Yorkshire, and their continued relevance to a long running debate". The Naturalist. 135 (1075).
  2. ^ Cook, L M; Saccheri, I J (2013). "The peppered moth and industrial melanism: evolution of a natural selection case study". Hereditary. 110 (3): 207–212. doi:10.1038/hdy.2012.92. PMC 3668657. PMID 23211788. S2CID 44052333.
  3. ^ Bayford, E. G. (1927). "In Memoriam: George Taylor Porritt, F. LS., F. E. S". The Naturalist: 83–87.
  4. ^ Brooke, Alan (12 September 2021). "Nostalgia: Huddersfield Society's 100 years of natural history". Yorkshire Live. Retrieved 8 January 2022.