Ephraim Porter Felt (January 7, 1868 – December 14, 1943) 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 ...

who specialised in

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 ...

Biography

Ephraim Porter Felt was born in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

on January 7, 1868, to Charles Wilson Felt and Martha Seeth Ropes Felt. He was educated at

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, and

Cornell Cornell University is a 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 White in 1865. Since ...

. From 1893 to 1895, Felt taught natural sciences at

Clinton Liberal Institute The Clinton Liberal Institute was a preparatory boarding school established by the Universalist Church in the village of Clinton, in the Town of Kirkland, New York, in 1831. Its main building, a massive stone structure, was the largest buildin ...

. In 1895, he was appointed assistant to J.A. Lintner, the State Entomologist of New York. Following Lintner's death in 1898, Felt was appointed as State Entomologist and remained in that position until his retirement in 1928. In retirement he worked at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories in Stamford, Connecticut, where he died from a heart attack on December 14, 1943. He married Helen Maria Otterson on June 24, 1896, and they had two children. Felt worked mostly with

Nematocera The Nematocera (the name meaning "thread-horns") are a suborder of elongated fly, flies with thin, segmented antenna (biology), antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies except for species from suborder ...

, particularly

Cecidomyiidae Cecidomyiidae is a family of diptera, flies known as gall midges or gall gnats. As the name implies, the larvae of most gall midges feed within plant tissue, creating abnormal plant growths called galls. Cecidomyiidae are very fragile small in ...

. However, as State Entomologist for New York, the scope of his work included all insects of

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

significance. He wrote ''Insects Affecting Park and Woodland Trees'' (New York State Museum Memoir 8, 1905-1906) and ''Plant Galls and Gall Makers'' (Ithaca, N.Y., Comstock Pub. Co., 1940), and described over 1,000

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in scientific journals. He described the mosquito genus ''

Culiseta ''Culiseta'' is a genus of mosquitoes. Most ''Culiseta'' species are cold-adapted, and only occur in warmer climates during the colder parts of the year or at higher elevations where temperatures are lower. Species found in Southern California ar ...

''. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

s of the Felt-named insect species are in the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

References

External links

PDFs of papers on mosquitoes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felt, Ephraim Porter 1868 births 1943 deaths American entomologists Boston University alumni Cornell University alumni Dipterists Massachusetts Agricultural College alumni