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Post by Adam Cotton on May 31, 2018 19:31:01 GMT
Influential not being equivalent to great I’m surprised nobody mentioned Bernie. Bernard D'Abrera was certainly influential, at least in so far as his books were accepted by CITES as identification guides to butterflies. The less said about the personal opinions he expressed in his works the better. Adam.
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Post by africaone on Jun 1, 2018 6:01:38 GMT
In the same way, any author of popular guide for insect are influencal. Such books often guide first new collectors. Any generation had their own guides and some remain as "reference". In Africa Williams : Field guide to butterflies of Africa (one of my first and my favourite in the 70's) Berger : les papillons du Zaire D'Abrera : Butterflies of Afrotropical region Pennington's butterflies for South Africa Larsen made some from various regions Smart the International Butterfly Book etc. Sure they are many many more
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Post by mcheki on Jun 1, 2018 8:53:49 GMT
We must not forget Jan Kielland and his great work, books and papers, on Tanzanian butterflies. He formed an enormous collection from Tanzania that now resides in the ABRI collection in Nairobi.
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Post by africaone on Jun 1, 2018 10:50:07 GMT
I don't know if it exist in English but they is an editor that made more than any other in French language : Delachaux Nestlé. It produced an impressive quantity of guide on insect that are probably the most used and popular, it is not a person but surely very much influencal.
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Post by jshuey on Jun 1, 2018 19:31:04 GMT
In the US, when I think “influential entomologists”, the names of three living researchers jump to mind. All three are hugely influential ecologists, evolutionary theorists, and conservationist biologists. All three also are (or were) taxonomists, and made major contributions toward theory in their respective biological fields. They are all members of the US National Academy of Sciences as well. In alphabetical order they are :
Paul Ehrlich - Worked for decades studying Euphydryas population ecology en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Ehrlich
Dan Janzen - working for over a decade on a complete lep larva inventory of Guanacaste National Park, C.R. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_H._Janzen
Edward Wilson - ants of course. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson
If you look at the Wiki articles - you will note that they barely mention their underlying entomological research emphasis - but focus instead on the "influence" part of their legacies.
j
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Post by jshuey on Jun 1, 2018 20:05:44 GMT
Influential not being equivalent to great I’m surprised nobody mentioned Bernie. Bernard D'Abrera was certainly influential, at least in so far as his books were accepted by CITES as identification guides to butterflies. The less said about the personal opinions he expressed in his works the better. Adam.
This is what Art Shapiro had to say about "Burnie" - Attention should be paid to their stupidities, their errors, their pig-headedness, their bad writing. The thing is, as I say in my reviews, they're absolutely indispensable. There's nothing else like them. If you're trying to identify exotic butterflies outside your geographic area, the primary and secondary literatures are so scattered and relatively inaccessible, you're out of hope. Big coffee table picture books are the only way to go. But if you're going to do that, at least get input from the people in the areas you cover geographically so you don't make an ass of yourself."
Good advice to anyone working in the field...
By the way - Art Shapiro also comes to mind re/ influential lepidopterists in the US.
j
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jhyatt
Aurelian
Posts: 224
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jhyatt on Jun 1, 2018 21:40:16 GMT
John Franclemont at Cornell was also certainly highly influential - he trained a couple of generations of US moth people. And J.F. Gates Clark at the Smithsonian was a very influential worker in the field of microlepidoptera.
Others who come to mind: Alexander B. Klots (his Field Guide brought butterfly knowledge to my generation); Harry K. Clench did great work on Lycaenids (pity he died so young - he would have had more influence for sure).
Of course there was a whole host of 19th and early 20th century greats - Holland and his predecessors - the Edwardses, etc etc. And if you want to go way. waaayy back, John Abbott brought southern North American butterflies to the attention of Europe, and worked out a lot of life histories. He was great for his time... but did he become a US citizen? Not sure.
Cheers, jh
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Post by exoticimports on Jun 23, 2018 21:05:18 GMT
Charlie Covell and John Tennent were great influences on me and I was lucky to spend time with both.
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