Bingham, Michael Graham

Michael Graham Bingham, born 4 September 1936 Ladysmith, KZN, South Africa. BSc (Hons) Zoology, University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). Mike is a prolific collector of species. He started collecting plants and termites when working as a biologist in tsetse fly control in what was then Southern Rhodesia, stationed first at Gokwe, and then at other places in the country. In 1966 he moved with his family to Lusaka, Zambia, where he has lived ever since. His most spectacular find was a centrum from the backbone of a large dinosaur, one of the earliest dinosaur finds in Zimbabwe. The specimen was not enough for a specific identification, but it might have belonged to the Jurassic Vulcanodon karibensis, which was discovered on an island in Lake Kariba in 1969, and described by Michael Raath.

In Zambia he continued collecting termites, which he deposited mostly in the collection of the Termite Research Unit, which was later moved to the Natural History Museum, London, when the TRU was closed. Mimeutermes binghami (Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae) was described by W. A. (Bill) Sands.

In the 1970s Mike bred butterflies, photographing their life histories. He contributed 75 photographs to the monograph on the African Charaxinae by the Henning family. Stephen Henning named Charaxes ethalion subsp. binghami.

Later in the 1970s he collected figtrees (Ficus spp., Moraceae) and their wasp pollintors (Agaonidae): Alfonsiella binghami and Platyscapa binghami were described by Koos Wiebes.

During the 1990s he collected a number of new plant species: Gloriosa sessiliflora Nordal & M. Bingham (Colchicacee), Crinum binghamii Nordal & Kwembeya (Amaryllidaceae), Crepidorhopalon mutinondoensis Eb. Fisch., Darbysh. & M. Bingham (Linderniaceae).

Plant species he has added to the Zambian list include Anthonotha macrophylla P. Beauv. (Caesalpinioideae), Lovoa trichilioides Harms (Meliaceae, with Tony Cunningham and Jonathan Timberlake); Ficus usambarensis Warb. (Moraceae); Cissus aralioides (Baker) Planch. (Vitaceae).

Throughout his time in Zambia Mike has grown indigenous plants, to get to know them better.

Contributed: 11 June 2016