Elizabeth Bangs Bryant

Elizabeth Bangs Bryant (April 7, 1875 – January 6, 1953) was an American arachnologist. She worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was a close acquaintance of James Henry Emerton.Deichmann, Elisabeth (1958)
"Elizabeth Bangs Bryant"
''Psyche'', 65, pp. 3-13. She is best known for her studies of the spiders of New England and the Caribbean.

Elizabeth was born to a wealthy Boston family and attended Radcliffe College. She would have graduated with the Radcliffe class of 1897 but left after only three years without finishing her degree.

She started her work at the Museum of Comparative Zoology as a volunteer in 1898. In the 1930s she was promoted the assistant curator of spiders and received a small salary. Her work included collections care of the wet specimens as well as taxonomic research. She officially retired from the museum in 1950 but continued to work on the spider collections until her death.

After her death, a memorial written by her colleague and friend, Elisabeth Deichmann, described her as having a proper sedate exterior that hid a youthful spirit. In her youth she took part in collecting trips in New England and had a substantial personal spider collection that she donated to the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Taxa described

Bryant named and described the following spider taxa:
* '' Allodecta'' Bryant, 1950
* '' Anasaitis'' Bryant, 1950
* '' Antillognatha'' Bryant, 1945
* ''Hispanognatha'' Bryant, 1945
*'' Habronattus trimaculatus'' Bryant, 1945
* '' Dinattus'' Bryant, 1943
* '' Modisimus fuscus'' Bryant, 1948
* '' Paradecta'' Bryant, 1950

Taxa named in her honor

* ''Bryantella'' ( Chickering, 1946)
* '' Bryantina'' ( Brignoli, 1985)

Publications

* 1908 ''List of Araneina in Fauna of New England, 9''. Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, pp. 1–105.
* 1923 ''Report on the spiders collected by the Barbados-Antigua Expedition from the University of Iowa in 1918''. Univ. Iowa Stud. in Nat. Hist., vol. 10, pp. 10–16.
* 1930 ''A revision of the American species oi the genus Ozyptila''. Psyche, vol. 37, pp. 375–391.
* 1930 ''New species of the genus Xysticus, (Arachnida)''. Psyche, vol. 37, pp. 132–140.
* 1931 ''Notes on North American Anyphaeninae in the Museum of Comparative Zoology''. Psyche, vol. 38, pp. 102–126.
* 1933 ''New and little known spiders from the United States''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 74, pp. 171–193.
* 1933 ''Notes on types of Urquhart’s spiders''. Rec. Canterbury Mus., vol. 4, pp. 1–27.
* 1934 ''New Lycosidae from Florida''. Psyche, vol. 41, pp. 38–41.
* 1935 ''Notes on some of Urquhart’s species of spiders''. Rec. Canterbury Mus., vol. 4, pp. 53–70.
* 1935 ''Some new and little known species of New Zealand spiders''. Rec. Canterbury Mus., vol. 4, pp. 71–94.
* 1935 ''A few southern spiders'', Psyche, vol. 42, pp. 73–83.
* 1935 ''A rare spider''. Psyche, vol. 42, pp. 163–166.
* 1936 ''New species of southern spiders''. Psyche, vol. 43, pp. 87–100.
* 1936 ''Descriptions of some new species of Cuban spiders''. Mem. Soc. Cubana Hist. Nat., vol. 10, pp. 325–332.
* 1938 ''Spiders in the Museum of Comparative Zoology'', Harvard Alumni Bull., Feb. 25.
* 1940 ''Notes on Epeira pentagona Hentz''. Psyche, vol. 47, pp. 60–65 (with A. F. Archer).
* 1940 ''Cuban spiders in the Museum of Comparative Zoology''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 86, pp. 247–532.
* 1941 ''Notes on the spider fauna of New England''. Psyche, vol. 48, pp. 129–146.
* 1942 ''Notes on the spiders of the Virgin Islands''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 89, pp. 317–363.
* 1942 ''Additions to the spider iauna of Puerto Rico''. Jour. Agr. Univ. Puerto Rico, vol. 26, pp. 1–19.
* 1942 ''Descriptions of certain North American Phidippus (Araneae)''. Amer. Midland Nat., vol. 28, pp. 693–707.
* 1943 ''The salticid spiders of Hispaniola''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 92, pp. 443–522.
* 1943 ''Notes on Dictyolathys maculata Banks (Araneae: Dictynidae)''. Psyche, vol. 50, pp. 83–86.
* 1944 ''Three species of Coleosoma from Florida (Araneae: Theridiidae)''. Psyche, vol. 51, pp. 51–58.
* 1945 ''The Argiopidae of Hispaniola''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol 95, pp. 357–418.
* 1945 ''Notes on some Florida spiders''. Trans. Connecticut Acad. Sci., vol. 36, pp. 199–213.
* 1945 ''Some new and little known southern spiders'', Psyche, vol. 52, pp. 178–192.
* 1946 ''The genotype of Mimetus Hentz''. Psyche, vol. 53, p. 48.
* 1947 ''A list of spiders from Mona Island with descriptions of new and little known species''. Psyche, vol. 54, pp. 86–89.
* 1947 ''Notes on spiders from Puerto Rico''. Psyche, vol. 54, pp. 183–193.
* 1948 ''The spiders of Hispaniola''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 100, pp. 329–447.
* 1948 ''Some spiders from Acapulco, Mexico''. Psyche, vol. 55, pp. 55–77.
* 1949 ''The male of Prodidomus rufus Hentz (Prodidomidae, Araneae)''. Psyche, vol. 56, pp. 22–25.
* 1949 ''A new genus and species of Theridiidae rom eastern Texas (Araneae)''. Psyche, vol. 56, pp. 66–69.
* 1949 ''The "Iris spider" of Kent Island''. Bull. Ninth Annual Rep., Bowdoin Sci. Sta. no. 11, pp. 14–15
* 1949 ''Acanthepeira venusta (Banks) (Araneae)''. Psyche, vol. 56, pp. 175–179.
* 1950 ''The salticid spiders of Jamaica''. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 103, pp. 161–209.
* 1951 ''Redescription of Cheiracanthium mildei L. Koch, a recent spider immigrant from Europe''. Psyche, vol. 58, pp. :20-123.
List o
articles by Bryant
available in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Elizabeth B.
1875 births
1953 deaths
Arachnologists
American arachnologists
Harvard University staff
20th-century American zoologists
American women biologists
20th-century American women scientists
Radcliffe College alumni