British zoologist who spent some years in Australia and New Zealand, where his interests extended to botany. Dendy began his career at Manchester University as an assistant lecturer, going on to the British Museum (Natural History) following his doctorate (1886). At the British Museum he worked on sponges collected on the Challenger expedition and succeeded the assistant in the Zoological Department, Stuart O. Ridley, in 1887.

Dendy moved to Australia in 1888 to take up a position in the zoology department of the University of Melbourne and during his time there co-authored An Introduction to the Study of Botany (1892) with A.H.S. Lucas. He then moved to New Zealand, where he was Professor of Biology at Canterbury College in Christchurch from 1894. An active member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (president 1895-1896, hon. secretary 1897-1901), he often made presentations on botanical subjects as well as his specialisms, which included sponges, land planariana and the tuatara. He was a close friend of the botanist Leonard Cockayne, with whom he collected plants, and of Arnold Wall.

Dendy moved back to the U.K. in 1905, where he became Professor of Zoology at King's College, London. The moss genus Dendia R.Br.bis was named in his honour, as was the species Cotula dendyi Cockayne (basionym of Leptinella dendyi (Cockayne) D.G.Lloyd & C.J.Webb).

Sources:
E.J. Godley, 1998, "Biographical Notes (31): Arthur Dendy, DSc (Manchester); Hon. Mem. N.Z. Inst.; FLS; FRS (1865-1925)", New Zealand Botanical Society Newsletter 53(September): 25-27.