Background
Malloch was born at Milton of Campsie in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
Malloch was born at Milton of Campsie in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
He and several others of his family worked at a textile factory in the area, but he spent his spare time collecting insects in the fields. His first published paper (1897) describes a type of migrating butterfly. In 1903 Malloch sold his extensive collection to the Glasgow Museum.
He continued to collect, but began to concentrate on Diptera from that time forward.
Before emigrating in 1910, he donated the remainder of his collection (13,000 flies) to the Royal Glasgow Museum. Little is known of Malloch"s education.
He listed a university degree from Glasgow on his job applications in the United States of America, but this has not been verified by university records from that area. In 1899 Malloch married Elizabeth Bryan.
They had four children: John Stirling (1900), Bessie (1903), James Alexander (1904), and George Graham (1910).
In 1910 Malloch emigrated to the United States, settling in Urbana, Illinois. His family did not follow until 1919. Malloch and Ingle did not have any further children.
By 1912 Malloch had obtained employment in the scientific arena, and spent the remainder of his life studying, collecting, and writing about Diptera, Hymenoptera and other insects in association with the Smithsonian In 1914 he published a seminal study listing and providing detailed categorization to the known Diptera order.