 J.
O. Westwood
(from Entomologists Monthly
Magazine 1893).
|
|
John Westwood was a Hope professor
at Oxford University, and he worked on all insect orders. He
published prolifically, and he described a number of scarabaeoids
in several papers. Possibly his most important work was An
Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects (1839-1840),
an enormous work of more than a thousand pages, in which he
followed the precepts of Latreille and MacLeay. He was strongly
anti-Darwinist and apparently anti-humorist as well ("a
good laugh at the futility of your own efforts may stop orderly
thinking"). An obituary written by McLachlan (Entomologists
Monthly Magazine 29: 49-51) states "There probably never
has existed, and in the present state of science, there can
never again exist, one who had so much general knowledge, both
from personal investigation and a study of the works of others;
one who was less of a specialist in the modern acceptation of
the term."
Reference:
Smith, R. F., T. E. Mittler, and C. N. Smith (eds.). 1973. A
History of Entomology. Annual Reviews, Inc., Palo Alto, CA.
517 pp. |
