James Nathaniel Halbert was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 entomologist. He was born 30 August 1871 and died 7 May 1948 in Dalkey

Dalkey

Dalkey is suburb of Dublin and seaside resort in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became an important port during the Middle Ages. According to John Clyn, it was one of the ports through which the plague entered Ireland in the mid-14th century...

, Dublin, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.

In 1892, Halbert began work at the Science and Art Museum, in Dublin (now the National Museum of Ireland

National Museum of Ireland

The National Museum of Ireland is the national museum in Ireland. It has three branches in Dublin and one in County Mayo, with a strong emphasis on Irish art, culture and natural history.-Archaeology:...

). He was appointed Technical Assistant in 1904 and then Assistant Naturalist, in place of George H. Carpenter, a few months later.
His first publications were on Coleoptera and appeared in the Irish Naturalist

Irish Naturalists' Journal

The Irish Naturalists' Journal covers all aspects of Natural History and has been published since 1925....

 starting in 1892. He also worked with other insects, mainly Neuroptera

Neuroptera

The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order contains some 6,010 species...

 and Hemiptera

Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...

. He also worked with fresh water mites

MITES

MITES, or Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, is a highly selective six-week summer program for rising high school seniors held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its purpose is to expose students from minority, or otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds, to the fields of...

, described more than forty insect species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 and subspecies from Ireland, and was the author of several new genera

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

.

Selected works

• With William Frederick Johnson
  William Frederick Johnson
  William Frederick Johnson was an Irish naturalist primarily interested in Entomology.-Biography:He was born in Travancore, India, where he spent his youth. A genial and kindly clergyman,he published over 100 papers each on Lepidoptera, sixty or so on Hymenoptera and smaller numbers on each of ten...
  
  , A list of the beetles of Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 6B: 535-827 (1902).
• With James John Francis Xavier King, A list of the Neuroptera of Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 28B: 29-112 (1910).
• A list of the Irish Hemiptera (Heteroptera and Cicadina). Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 42B: 211-318 (1935).
• List of Irish fresh-water mites (Hydracarina) Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 50, B, 4:39-103 (1944)