Only Leiopython albertisii (the white-lipped python) is currently recognised as a valid species, the other three reptiles being synonymised within species described earlier, ironically two of which were described by British entomologist William Sharp Macleay whose rival expedition on the Chevert, was also collecting specimens in southern Papua.
Later he collected a large number of Australian insects; on his death these were bequeathed to his cousin William John Macleay, whose interest in natural history he encouraged and who in 1888 transferred them to the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, for which act he was knighted.
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Macleay was interested in the natural history of Australia, the marine fauna around Port Jackson in particular.
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He also encouraged the scientific interests of his brother George Macleay.
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The collections of the Macleay Museum are based largely on the efforts and acquisitions of the Macleays, one of the pre-eminent families in colonial Sydney: Alexander Macleay, William Sharp Macleay and William John Macleay.
The family migrated to Sydney in 1853 where William Guilfoyle was privately educated at Lyndhurst College, Glebe where he received botanical instruction by William Woolls, William Sharp MacLeay (1792–1865) and John MacGillivray (1821–1867), who all encouraged him to follow in his father's career.
William John Macleay (1820-1891), British/Australian zoologist (cousin of William Sharp MacLeay)