J.F. Gates Clarke, Moth Expert

WASHINGTON - A former Washington state man who became one of the nation's leading authorities on moths has died at his home in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

J.F. Gates Clarke, 85, died Monday of heart failure. He had served in the Division of Insects of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Clarke was born in Vancouver, B.C., and moved with his family to Bellingham when he was 11.

He attended Washington State University and earned a degree in chemistry in 1926, another in zoology in 1930 and a master's degree in entomology in 1931. He taught biology at Washington State University before leaving for work on a doctorate at Cornell University in 1935.

Clarke moved on to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., as an entomologist. He served in the Army in Europe during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star.

After the war, Clarke attended the University of Paris. He earned a doctorate in entomology from the University of London in 1953.

The next year, Clarke became a curator at the Smithsonian and helped develop a collection of 30 million insects. He later was department chairman and senior entomologist and continued to work daily as a research associate until his death.

Clarke published 102 research papers and the ``Golden Book of Butterflies.'' He also published a 4,000-page catalog of moths.

As recently as this summer, Clarke and his wife, Nancy, returned to the Bellingham area, where Clarke had collected moths and butterflies as a boy. He discovered a considerable decline in the numbers of moths and butterflies there, the Smithsonian reported.

Survivors besides his wife, of Hyattsville, Md., include a son, J.F. Gates Clarke Jr. of Wilmington, Del.; a daughter, Carol Lewis of Frederick, Md.; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson.