Obituaries

Abstract

Dr. R. Hanitsch came to Oxford after the War of 1914–18 and in the Hope Department of the University Museum continued his studies of Malaysian Blattidæ until failing health finally prevented further work in 1939. At the time of his death, papers on the Blattidse of New Guinea, Federated Malay States, and Borneo were well advanced. He had written thirty-two papers on Blattidæ, mainly oriental, in which 17 new genera and 218 new species were described. As a result of this work, and the previous work of Mr. R. Shelford, the Hope Department became well known as a centre of study of these insects, of which many types are there preserved. The University awarded him an honorary M.A. in 1935. It is, perhaps, not widely known that in 1899 he conducted an expedition up Mt. Kina Balu in Borneo, though circumstances prevented him from reaching the summit: this resulted in the discovery of new species of reptiles, Amphibia, a new genus of fresh-water fish, many new insects and a new crustacean.