Elwood Zimmerman
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Elwood Curtin Zimmerman (December 8, 1912 – June 18, 2004) 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 ...
best known for his two multivolume series: ''Insects of Hawaii'' published by the
University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
and ''Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)'' published by Australia's
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...
.Upton & Oberprieler 2004.


Biography

During his school years in the hills above
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, where his father was a woodworker, he developed such a passion for entomology that he acquired the nickname "Bugs." He would go on summer camping trips organized by the Boy Scout leader "Bugsy" Cain, and developed a circle of boyhood friends who went on to become entomologists, including Robert L. Usinger,
Judson Linsley Gressitt Judson Linsley Gressitt (16 June 1914 – 26 April 1982) was an American entomologist and naturalist who worked in Japan and China. He worked mainly on beetle diversity in Southeast Asia and in applied areas, particularly medical entomology, and w ...
, and E. Gorton Linsley. At first he collected butterflies, but began to concentrate on
weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small – less than in length – and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several fa ...
s at the suggestion of a professor at the nearby
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 ...
. During a camping trip in 1930, he discovered a new species of weevil that became the subject of his first academic publication, in 1932, soon after enrolling in UC Berkeley, where he received a B.S. degree in 1936. On the basis of his considerable field experience and his earlier work mounting specimens of Hawaiian and Pacific insects for the Pacific Entomological Survey, which was then headquartered at UC Berkeley, his mentors there recommended him to serve as the field entomologist on the Bernice P. Bishop Museum's Mangarevan Expedition to southeastern Polynesia in 1934. His senior colleagues on that expedition gave him a new, lifelong nickname, "Zimmie," and his close-up encounters with a wide variety of island
ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
gave him a new, enduring passion for
biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...
. Zimmerman settled in Honolulu in 1936, where he worked as an entomologist for the Bishop Museum and conceived the idea for a single-author, multivolume ''Insects of Hawaii'' monograph modeled on the ''Insects of Western North America'' (1926) by his Berkeley mentor,
Edward Oliver Essig Edward Oliver Essig (29 September 1884 Arcadia, Indiana – 23 November 1964, Lafayette, California) was an American entomologist who specialized in the Hemiptera. Essig was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote ''Injuri ...
. By 1946, he had completed the first five volumes, but Bishop Museum director Peter H. Buck was more eager to publish new works in anthropology than in entomology, so Zimmerman turned instead to the University of Hawaii, whose president, Gregg M. Sinclair, agreed to publish the volumes under the auspices of the newly established University of Hawaii Press. The first five volumes finally appeared—to considerable local and international acclaim—in 1948, the same year that their author received a Fulbright fellowship to work at the British
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...
on its large holdings of Hawaiian insects, many of them collected by R. C. L. Perkins over a period of 25 years beginning in the 1890s, at a time when many native fauna were disappearing. Zimmerman spent most of the next two decades living on grant money and private funds, in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
as an honorary associate of the British Museum and in
Peterborough, New Hampshire Peterborough is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,418 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The main village, with 3,090 people at the ...
, where he had easy access to the
Museum of Comparative Zoology The Museum of Comparative Zoology (formally the Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology and often abbreviated to MCZ) is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural-history r ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He completed a Ph.D. from the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
in 1956, published three more volumes of ''Insects of Hawaii'' in 1957–58, and prepared one more that languished in the pipeline until 1978. He was also made a life-fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
in 1957. Meanwhile, back in Honolulu, D. Elmo Hardy and others began publishing further volumes of ''Insects of Hawaii'' devoted to the exceptionally rich variety of
Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...
(true flies) in the islands, a variety Zimmerman had called attention to in a short contribution to ''
Evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
'' in 1958 with the provocative title, "300 insect species of ''Drosophila'' in Hawaii?—A challenge to geneticists and evolutionists" (''Evolution'' 12, pp. 557–558).
This paper helped stimulate one of the most outstanding and scientifically rewarding long-term, multidisciplinary research efforts in the history of evolutionary biology, encompassing
systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...
,
genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
,
ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
, and
ethology Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behavior, behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithology, ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th cen ...
of the ''
Drosophila ''Drosophila'' (), from Ancient Greek δρόσος (''drósos''), meaning "dew", and φίλος (''phílos''), meaning "loving", is a genus of fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or p ...
'' complex.
By the 1970s, however, Zimmerman had trouble securing the funds needed to keep working on ''Insects of Hawaii'' and ended up accepting a generous offer from Douglas Waterhouse at Australia's
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...
to turn his attention to producing another ambitious multivolume monograph, this time on ''Australian Weevils.'' By 1990, he had the first five volumes ready to publish, only to find that funding for this project, too, had dried up. He and his wife sold much of their estate, not just to subsidize publication, but also to endow an ongoing position at CSIRO for research on Pacific weevils. In 1992, they moved from their cattle station near Canberra to a home and laboratory on Tura Beach, where Zimmerman spent his remaining years. Among the awards Zimmerman received for his life's work were a fellowship to 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, ...
in 1946;v a D.Sc. from the University of London in 1980; the
Karl Jordan Medal Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cachoe ...
for his work on Hawaiian
Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
in 1983; the Herbert E. Gregory Medal at the Pacific Science Congress in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
in 1995; and Member of the
Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
and the University of Hawaii Regents' Medal of Distinction in 1998.


''Insects of Hawaii''

The ''Insects of Hawaii'' series, now under the editorship of James K. Liebherr of
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, aims to provide a collaborative, comprehensive, taxonomy of all known Hawaiian insect fauna. So far, more than 5,000 native arthropod species have been described. Only vols. 1, 16, and 17 are still in print, but the out-of-print volumes are being scanned and added to the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
's
digital repository A digital library (also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...
,
ScholarSpace The Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is the largest research library in the state of Hawaii. The Library serves as a key resource for the flagship Manoa campus (a land, sea and space grant institution) as well as the other ...
. *1. Reissue of the ''Introduction.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman, with new Foreword by James K. Liebherr and short biography of the author by James O. Juvik. (2001) - Geological History of Hawaii: Derivation, Dispersal, and Distribution. Evolution and Development, Analyses and Summaries of Biota *16. ''Hawaiian Carabidae (Coleoptera).'' James K. Liebherr and Elwood C. Zimmerman. (2000) - Part 1: Introduction and Tribe Platynini *17. ''Hawaiian Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) Bees.'' Howell V. Daly and Karl N. Magnacca. (2003) - Hymenoptera: Apoidea The out-of-print volumes follow: *1. ''Introduction.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1947) - Geological History of Hawaii: Derivation, Dispersal, and Distribution. Evolution and Development, Analyses and Summaries of Biota *2. ''Apterygota to Thysanoptera.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1948) - Thysanura, Diplura, Protura, Collembola, Orthoptea, Isoptera, Embioptera, Dermaptera, Zoraptera, Corrondentia, Mallophaga, Anoplura, Odonata, Thysanoptera *3. ''Heteroptera.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1948) - Cydnidae, Pentatomidae, Coreidae, Lygaeidea, Tingidae, Enicocephalidae, Reduviidea, Nabidae, Cimicidae, Anthocoridae, Cryptostemmatidae, Miridae, Saldidae, Hebridae, Mesoveliidae, Veliidae, Gerridae, Notonectidae, Corixidae *4. ''Homoptera: Auchenorhyncha.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1948) - Cercopidae, Cicadellidae, Membracidae, Cixiidae, Delphacidae, Flatidae *5. ''Homoptera: Sternorhyncha.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1948) - Psylloidea, Aleyrodoidea, Aphidoidea, Coccoidea *6. ''Ephemeroptera-Neuroptera-Trichoptera and Supplement to Volumes 1-5.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1957, out of print) *7. ''Macrolepidoptera.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1958) - Geometridae, Noctuidae, Sphingidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Danaidae, Lycaenidae *8. ''Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1958) - Galleriinae, Pyraustinae, Scopariinae, Nymphulinae, Pyralinae, Crambinae, Phycitinae, Pterophoridae, Alucitidae *9. ''Microlepidoptera.'' Elwood C. Zimmerman. (1978) - Monotrysia, Tineoidea, Tortricoidea, Gracillarioidea, Yponomeutoidea, Alucitoidea, Gelechioidea *10. ''Diptera: Nematocera-Brachycera (except Dolichopodidae).'' D. Elmo Hardy. (1960) - Tipulidae, Psychodidae, Culicidae, Chironomidae, Ceratopogonidae, Scatopsidae, Mycetophilidae, Sciaridae, Cecidomyiidae, Stratiomyidae, Bombyliidae, Scenopinidae, Empididae *11. ''Diptera: Brachycera II-Cyclorrhapha.'' I. D. Elmo Hardy. (1964) - Dolichopodidae, Phoridae, Lonchopteridae, Pipunculidae, Syrphidae *11, Supplement. ''Diptera: Dolichopodidae and Appendix (Phoridae).'' JoAnn M. Tenorio. (1969) *12. ''Diptera: Cyclorrhapha II.'' D. Elmo Hardy. (1965) - Series Schizophora, Section Acalypterae I, Family Drosophilidae *13. ''Diptera: Cyclorrhapha III.'' D. Elmo Hardy and M. D. Delfinado. (1980) - Series Schizophora, Section Acalypterae, Exclusive of Family Drosophilidae *14. ''Diptera: Cyclorrhapha IV.'' D. Elmo Hardy. (1981) - Series Schizophora, Section Calyptratae *15. ''Collembola.'' Kenneth Christiansen and Peter Bellinger. (1992) - Suborder Arthropleona; Suborder Symphypleona


''Australian Weevils''

''Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)'' is an 8-volume, comprehensive monograph that includes all the recorded species, with notes about their distributions, economic importance, host plants, and life histories, amply illustrated with roughly 10,000 images, over half of them in color. The following volumes are still in print. *1 (1994). ''Anthribidae to Attelabidae: The Primitive Weevils'' - Anthribidae, Belidae, Nemonychidae, Caridae, Rhynchitidae, Attelabidae *2 (1994). ''Brentidae, Eurhynchidae, Apionidae and a Chapter on Immature Stages by Brenda May'' *3 (1993). ''Nanophyidae, Rhynchophoridae, Erirhinidae, Curculionidae: Amycterinae, Literature Consulted'' *5 (1992). ''Colour Plates 1-304'' - (Orthoceri) from Anthribidae to Apionidae; Heteromorphi; Gonatoceri: Amycterinae and Entiminae (Adelognatha).


References

*Juvik, J. O. (2001) "An Uncommon Dedication," in ''Insects of Hawaii'', vol. 1, ''Introduction'' by Elwood C. Zimmerman, reissued with a new Foreword by James K. Liebherr and short biography of the author by James O. Juvik (
University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, ), pp. xvii–xxvii. *Upton, Murray S., & Rolf Oberprieler (2004) "Elwood Curtin Zimmerman, World Authority on Weevils, XII-08-1912 to VI-18-2004," ''Curculio'' 49:20-2


Further reading

*


External links


CSIRO Publishing: Australian WeevilsUniversity of Hawaii Press: Insects of HawaiiUniversity of Hawaii Digital Repository: Insects of HawaiiScholarSpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Elwood 1912 births 2004 deaths American entomologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Alumni of the University of London Writers from Spokane, Washington Fellows of the Entomological Society of America Members of the Order of Australia 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century Australian zoologists