George Henry Horn (April 7, 1840 – November 24, 1897) 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 specialized in the study of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

Biography

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on April 7, 1840, Horn attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, from which he graduated with a degree in medicine in 1861. From 1862 to 1866, he served in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

as surgeon to the infantry of the

California Volunteers California Volunteers may refer to: * Volunteer units from California in the American Civil War * CaliforniaVolunteers CaliforniaVolunteers is the state agency charged with increasing the number and impact of Californians engaged in service an ...

, during which time he collected insects extensively in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he established a medical practice, specializing in

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a su ...

, and was elected president of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, the predecessor of the

American Entomological Society The American Entomological Society was founded on March 1, 1859. It is the oldest continuously operating entomological society in the Western Hemisphere and one of the oldest scientific societies in the United States. Headquartered in Philadelp ...

. He would remain president of the latter society until his death. He was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1869 and was the librarian and one of the secretaries of the society at the time of his death. Working with the collection he had made during his service in the West, he published "more than 150 important papers, in addition to very many minor notes; in these papers about 150 genera and more than 1550 species are defined". He bequeathed his collections of insects to the American Entomological Society; they are now in 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 ...

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 ...

. Most of Horn's work was written from a "monographic, systematic standpoint", and included an abundance of comparative analyses between different orders, suborders, and families of beetle. In particular, Horn's legacy included an abundance of observational data on the

Carabidae Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it is one of the 10 most species-rich animal ...

and

Silphidae Silphidae is a family of beetles that are known commonly as large carrion beetles, carrion beetles or burying beetles. There are two family (biology), subfamilies: Silphinae and Nicrophorinae. Members of Nicrophorinae are sometimes known as bury ...

families of beetles, also known respectively as ground beetles and carrion beetles. According to the entomologist

Neal Evenhuis Neal Luit Evenhuis (born Kornelus Luit Evenhuis on 16 April 1952) is an American entomologist. He works at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. Evenhuis has described over 500 species of insects since 1976, and is known both for his research and peculiar ...

, Throughout his career, he worked closely with

John Lawrence LeConte John Lawrence LeConte MD (May 13, 1825 – November 15, 1883) was an American entomology, entomologist, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxon, taxa known in the United States during his lifetime,

, most notably as coauthor of the revised and expanded 1883 edition of LeConte's then-standard ''Classification of the Coleoptera of North America''; and after LeConte's death Horn was recognized as "easily the most eminent investigator in his chosen line of work".

References

External links

*
"The Entomological Writings of George Henry Horn"
by Samuel Henshaw, ''Transactions of the American Entomological Society'', vol. XXV (1898) {{DEFAULTSORT:Horn, George Henry 1840 births 1897 deaths Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni American entomologists Coleopterists Union army surgeons Scientists from Philadelphia People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War