Nadejda "Nadia" Waloff

FRES Fres () is a village and former municipality in the Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Apokoronas, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of . The ...

(2 September 1909 – 5 June 2001) was a Russian-born English

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 ...

. She worked on the biology of

locust Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...

s, flight and dispersal of the

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 ...

, and taught at

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

Silwood Park Silwood Park is the rural campus of Imperial College London, England. It is situated near the village of Sunninghill, near Ascot in Berkshire. Since 1986, there have been major developments on the site with four new college buildings. Adjacen ...

campus. Nadia was born in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

on 2 September 1909. Her family fled in 1919 and took refuge in Britain. After her mother died in 1926 and her father moved to Romania, Sir

Boris Uvarov Sir Boris Petrovitch Uvarov (3 November 1886 – 18 March 1970) was a Russian-British entomologist best known for his work on the biology and ecology of locusts. He has been called the father of acridology. Biography Boris Petrovitch Uvarov wa ...

, who was the director of the

Anti-Locust Research Centre The Anti-Locust Research Centre (ALRC) was set up in London, United Kingdom, by the Colonial Office in 1945, with the aim of improving the worldwide forecasting and control of locusts. The Russian-British entomologist Boris Uvarov was appointed as i ...

in London, took in Nadia, her sister Zena (died 1991,) and two brothers. An early interest in entomology led her and Zena to study at the Imperial College. After earning her bachelor’s degree, Nadia taught at a school for a number of years. In 1946, Nadia began her work on pests at the Slough laboratory and received a Ph.D and Sc.D from Imperial College. She was known for her exceptional teaching ability and she also conducted research on the

diapause In animal dormancy, diapause is the delay in development in response to regular and recurring periods of adverse environmental conditions.Tauber, M.J., Tauber, C.A., Masaki, S. (1986) ''Seasonal Adaptations of Insects''. Oxford University Press It ...

of flour moths, the ecology and population dynamics of various insects. Some of her significant research included studies on the dispersal and flight of Hemiptera including

leafhopper Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family (biology), family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus ''Cicadella''. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or ...

s. She examined the factors contributing to wing polymorphism, the presence of wingless, short-winged and long-winged forms in relation to habitats and life-history. She suggested that trees and woody plants are architecturally more complex with leaves being widely separated and making flight more important. This she suggested would explain the observation that cicadas and other arboreal hemiptera rarely had wingless forms. She was also among the first to use radioactive phosphorus, P-35, tracers to study the dispersal of mirid bugs. Waloff retired in 1978, but in 1990, she was still publishing as a member of the Department of Pure and Applied Biology, at the Imperial College. The grasshopper ''Oedaleus nadiae'' was named after her.

Selected publications

Waloff published under both her given name, Nadejda, and her preferred name, Nadia. * Waloff, Nadejda. "The mechanisms of humidity reactions of terrestrial isopods." ''Journal of Experimental Biology'' 18.2 (1941): 115-135. * Richards, O. W., and Nadia Waloff. "The study of a population of Ephestia elutella Hübner (Lep., Phycitidae) living on bulk grain." ''Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London'' 97.11 (1946): 253-298. * Richards, Owain Westmacott, and Nadejda Waloff. "A study of a natural population of Phytodecta olivacea (Forster)(Coleoptera, Chrysomeloidea)." ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences'' 244.710 (1961): 205-257. * Waloff, Nadia. "Studies on the insect fauna on Scotch broom Sarothamnus scoparius (L.) Wimmer." ''Advances in ecological research''. Vol. 5. Academic Press, 1968. 87-208. * Mound, Laurence Alfred, and Nadia Waloff. "Diversity of insect faunas;(papers of the ninth Symposium of the Royal Entomological Society held in London, on 22-23 Sep 1977)." (1978). * Waloff, Nadia, ed. "Diversity of insect faunas." Royal Entomological Society, 1978. * Waloff, Nadia, and G B Popov. "Sir Boris Uvarov (1889-1970): The Father of Acridology." Annual Review of Entomology 1990 35:1, 1-26

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waloff, Nadia British entomologists Women entomologists Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society 20th-century English women scientists White Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom Scientists from Saint Petersburg Alumni of Imperial College London Academics of Imperial College London 1909 births 2001 deaths 20th-century British zoologists