Edward Payson Van Duzee (6 April 1861 – 2 June 1940) was an American
entomologist
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
noted for his work on
Hemiptera
Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...
. As of 1885, he was a librarian at Grosvenor Library of Buffalo New York for 28 years, and then relocated to California in 1912 where he took a position at Scripps Institute in La Jolla. The same year, Van Duzee became a fellow at the
Entomological Society of America
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...
. Due to his fellowship, Van Duzee was appointed as an instructor of entomology at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, from 1914 to 1916, after which he was served as curator of the entomology collection at the
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
from 1916 to 1940. At the time of his death, he had approximately 165 publications in addition to his noted Catalogue of the Hemiptera where he established 46 new genera and 906 species or subspecies.
''The following is drawn from a brief unpublished autobiographical sketch written by Van Duzee in January, 1940'': His father was Dr. William Sanford Van Duzee, natural historian and amateur astronomer (a
Fitz refractory telescope
Fitz (pronounced "fits") was a patronymic indicator used in Anglo-Norman England to help distinguish individuals by identifying their immediate predecessors. Meaning "son of", it would precede the father's forename, or less commonly a title held ...
intended for the University of Virginia came into his possession in 1861 due to a failed sale because of war conditions). Shortly after Edward Payson's birth, the family left New York and returned to Buffalo (corner of Main and Riley Streets) where the family home housed a small natural history museum and the Fitz telescope housed in a specially-built three-story structure that was opened for public viewing. Meetings of like-minded took place in the home and the Buffalo Society for Natural History was thus born. His brother,