Frederick Merrifield

Frederick Merrifield (1831 – 28 May 1924, Brighton) was an English entomologist.

Merrifield was a London attorney. An expert on Lepidoptera, he was especially interested in the effect of temperature on the colour and patterning of butterflies, rearing larvae and pupae in controlled temperature incubators and recording the effect on the colouration of adults. Examples of his very many scientific papers on this subject are (1890). Systematic temperature experiments on some Lepidoptera in all their stages. Trans. Entomol. Soc. London, 131-59 and (1891). Conspicuous effects on the markings and colouring of Lepidoptera caused by exposure of the pupae to different temperature conditions. Trans. Entomol. Soc. London, 155-67.

He was President of the Royal Entomological Society (1905-1906).

Merrifield was a spiritualist, but lost respect for the medium Daniel Dunglas Home after claiming to have observed him cheat. At a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, a sitter Merrifield observed that a "spirit-hand" was a false limb attached on the end of Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have observed Home use his foot in the séance room.

Merrifield's daughter Margaret de Gaudrion Verrall (1857-1916) became a spiritualist medium.