Peter Cameron (1847 – 1 December 1912 in

New Mills New Mills is a small town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, south-east of Stockport and from Manchester at the confluence of the River Goyt and River Sett, Sett. It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

amateur

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

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

. An artist, Cameron worked in the

dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...

industry and in

calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

printing. He described many new species; his collection, including

type material In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

, is now in the

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 ...

. He suffered from poor health and lack of employment. Latterly, he lived in New Mills and was supported by scholarships from the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. He loaned specimens to

Jean-Jacques Kieffer Jean-Jacques Kieffer (1857 in Guinkirchen – 1925 in Bitche) was a French naturalist and entomologist who specialised in the study of parasitic insects. Educated as a priest, Kieffer taught natural science in Bitche, Lorraine while working ...

, a teacher and Catholic priest in

Bitche Bitche (English pronunciation: , ; German and Lorraine Franconian: ) is a commune in Moselle department, in the region of Grand Est in northeastern France. It is the Pays de Bitche's capital city, and the seat of the Canton of Bitche and the ...

, Lorraine, who also named species after Cameron. Some of Cameron's

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

work is not very well regarded. Upon his death

Claude Morley Claude Morley (22 June 1874 – 13 November 1951) was an English antiquary and entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera. He has been described by Peter Marren as "Suffolk's best-known entomologist". Biography Morley was born ...

wrote, "Peter Cameron is dead, as was announced by most of the halfpenny papers on December 4th. What can we say of his life? Nothing; for it concerns us in no way. What shall we say of his work? Much, for it is entirely ours, and will go down to posterity as probably the most prolific and chaotic output of any individual for many years past." Similarly, American entomologist Richard M. Bohart "wound up with the thankless task of sorting through Cameron's North American contributions to a small group of wasps known as the Odynerini. Of the hundred or so names Cameron proposed within the group, almost all, Bohart found, were invalid." The Panamanian oak gall wasp ''

Callirhytis cameroni ''Callirhytis'' is a genus of gall wasps in the family Cynipidae. There are more than 90 described species in ''Callirhytis''. Wasps in this genus primarily induce wasps on oak trees in North America. Species The following species are recognised ...

'' described 2014 is named in his honor.

Works

*A ''Monograph of the British Phytophagous Hymenoptera'' Ray Society (1882–1893) *Hymenoptera volumes of the ''

Biologia Centrali-Americana The ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' is an encyclopedia of the natural history of Mexico and Central America, privately issued in 215 parts from 1879 to 1915 by the editors Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin, of the British Museum (Natural ...

'', volumes 1–2 (1883–1900) and (1888–1900) A complete list is given in external links below.

References

External links

Publications of Peter CameronManuscript collectionBHL
''Hymenoptera Orientalis: or contributions to a knowledge of the Hymenoptera of the Oriental zoological region''. Manchester :Literary and Philosophical Society,1889–1903.
Digital Version of ''Biologia Centrali-Americana''
English entomologists Hymenopterists 1847 births 1912 deaths People from New Mills {{UK-entomologist-stub