Elizabeth A. Bernays (1940 – 5 March 2024) was an Australian entomologist who was a Regents Professor at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. She was known for studies of physiological, behavioural, and ecological interactions between plants, herbivorous insects and their predators. Bernays worked on the feeding behaviour of a variety of insects including

aphids Aphids are small sap-sucking insects in the Taxonomic rank, family Aphididae. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white Eriosomatinae, woolly ...

grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

, and hawkmoths. She was known for championing the idea that predation drove many insects to specialise on a few species of hostplants, rather than specialisation being solely the outcome of a chemical arms race between plant and insect herbivores.

Early life

Educated at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

, Australia, she moved to London to teach high school students; she subsequently studied for a PhD there. Prior to moving to the University of Arizona, she was a professor 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 ...

Career

Bernays published more than 100 book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, edited volumes and books on a variety of entomological subjects including insect learning, feeding, taste and water homeostasis. Her research into the feeding behaviour of insects helped guide interventions designed to minimise crop pest damage. Along with Michael S. Singer, she published a paper in 2005 in ''Nature'' showing that parasitised tiger moth caterpillars have greater sensitivity to

pyrrolizidine alkaloids Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), sometimes referred to as necine bases, are a group of naturally occurring alkaloids based on the structure of pyrrolizidine. Their use dates back centuries and is intertwined with the discovery, understanding, and ...

than non-parasitised caterpillars and that parasitised caterpillars seek out plants containing these chemicals to defend themselves from predation and parasitism.

Academic honours

In 1986, she received the Vatican's highest scientific honour, the

Pius XI Gold Medal The Pius XI Medal is an award presented every second year by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to a promising scientist under the age of 45. Winners of the Pius XI Medal (1939-2020) * 1939 Corneille Heymans (Belgium) Physiology * 1942 Harlow Sh ...

of the

Pontifical Academy of Sciences The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (, ) is a Academy of sciences, scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences and the study ...

Late career activities

After retirement, Bernays studied for a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona. She wrote two memoirs''.'' The first memoir, ''Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Live,'' described her childhood experiences with nature, her work with her husband as an applied entomologist in Africa, and her professional experiences as a woman in science moving from the science culture of the U.K. to a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley. Her second memoir, ''Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair,'' describes her personal and creative relationship with her wife Linda Hitchcock which included collaborating on children's nature books and travelling the southwestern U.S.

Personal life

She was married to the English entomologist Reginald Frederick Chapman until his death in 2003. She met Linda Hitchcock, photojournalist in 2004 and subsequently married in 2018 .

Selected books and edited volumes

* ''Herbivores and Plant Tannins'' with Gillian A. Cooper-Driver and M. Bilgener, London: Academic Press, 1989. * ''Insect-Plant Interactions,'' Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1990. * ''Host-Plant Selection by Phytophagous Insects'' with R.F. Chapman, New York: Chapman & Hall, 1994. * ''Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Life'', Florida: Raised Voices Press, 2019. * ''Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair,'' Arizona: Wheatmark, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernays, Elizabeth 1940 births 2024 deaths Australian entomologists