Insects and Entomologists

Insect specimens at Oxford University Museum of Natural History This month insects are under the magnifying glass, along with some of the entomologists who have studied them. Insects are small, invertebrate animals, but not all creepy-crawlies are insects. True insects have a body divided into head, thorax, and abdomen, and no more six legs in their adult form.

Insects are to be found almost everywhere. A million separate species of insects have so far been described, but some entomologists believe there may be as many as 30 million species yet to be discovered. Insects play a major role in our environment. Some - such as the malaria-carrying mosquito - can be serious pests, while others - such as the pollinating bee - are beneficial and often of vital importance for us.

Insects exercise a fascination for amateur natural historians and professional entomologists alike. This month we highlight the papers of some of the writers, artists, and other enthusiasts who have collected or studied insects, as well as papers of professional biologists. There are also links to museum collections, entomological organisations, and events.

photo top right courtesy Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Collections

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910): Russian novelist Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi had bee-keeing as a hobby
George Crotch (1842-1874): librarian and zoologist; author of Catalogue of British coleoptera, 1866 (coleoptera are beetles)
Patrick Manson (1844-1922): physician and parasitologist who first made the connection between mosquitoes and malaria
Emanuel Augustus Newberry (1845-1927) entomologist who compiled a "Register of British Coleoptera and Hemiptera" (hemiptera include bugs and lice)
Oliver Erichson Janson (1850-1926): entomologist who traded in natural history specimens
Francis John Henry Jenkinson (1853-1923): Curator of Insects at Cambridge University Museum of Zoology, and Cambridge University Librarian
John Beveridge (1857-1943): Presbyterian minister and historian, with an interest in bee-keeping
George Darby Haviland (1857-1901): surgeon and naturalist who collected termites
Robert Cyril Layton Perkins (1866-1955): lived and worked on the Hawaiian Islands and contributed to the Fauna Hawaiiensis, 1903, 1913, edited by David Sharp (1840-1922)
David Waterson (1870-1954): artist and entomologist; discovered a species of wasp previously believed extinct
H. Evans (fl 1851-1853): lepidopterist (lepidoptera are butterflies and moths)
A.C. Crawfurd (1883-1977): zoologist who collected insects
James Watson Munro (1888-1968): zoologist with an interest in pest control; helped establish Slough Biological Field Station
Edmund Brisco Ford (1901-1988): geneticist with an interest in moths, especially the industrial melanic peppered moth, which provides an important example of natural selection
David Guthrie (died 1941): journalist who retired to Jersey, where he made drawings of the local insects
Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988): pioneering ethologist (animal behaviourist) with a special interest in wasps and butterflies; later concerned with human ethology and autism
John Pringle (1912-1982): zoologist with a special interest in insect physiology
Wilfrid Hogarth Dowdeswell (1914-1996): educationalist and lepidopterist, who worked with Edmund Brisco Ford (1901-1988)
Torkel Weis-Fogh (1922-1975): Danish zoologist, specialising in insect physiology, in particular that of locusts

Insects and Entomologists

Collections

Links

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