Terry Lee Erwin (December 1, 1940 – May 11, 2020) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

with the Smithsonian Institution. Erwin went to Vallejo High School and then graduated in biology in 1964, followed by a masters in 1966 from San Jose State College (now San Jose State University). He went to the University of Alberta to study carabid beetles under George Ball, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1969 followed by a post-doctoral stint at Harvard under

P. Jackson Darlington, Jr. Philip Jackson Darlington Jr. (November 14, 1904, Philadelphia – 16 December 1983, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American entomologist, field naturalist, biogeographer, museum curator, and zoology professor. He was legendary for his collectin ...

He took up an entomologist position in the United States National Museum (later the Smithsonian Institution) but took a year off to study

carabid 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 fam ...

beetles at the University of Lund under

Carl H. Lindroth Carl Hildebrand Lindroth (8 September 1905 – 23 February 1979) was a Swedish entomologist and a professor at Lund University. He was a specialist in carabidology (the study of ground beetles), with a special interest in biogeography. He was a str ...

. On return in 1971, Erwin was deputed to examine the beetles of Panama. By fogging the forest canopy with pesticide, he collected the falling specimens and found 1,200 species of beetles living in '' Luehea seemannii'' trees. Of those 1,200 species of beetles, he estimated that 163 are found only in the ''Luehea seemannii'' tree and not in other species of trees. There are about 50,000 species of trees in the tropics and beetles make up 40% of insects and related animals. Erwin estimated that there are about twice as many species of insects and related animals in tropical trees as there are on the ground of the forest. Erwin is notable for his controversial extrapolation of 30 million as the total number of arthropod species. Erwin served as secretary of the Society of Systematic Biologists from 1973 to 1975, and was the editor in chief of '' ZooKeys''. He described over 20 genera and more than 400 species of insect, and as of 2015 is commemorated in the names of 47 species, two genera, one subfamily and one subspecies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erwin, Terry 1940 births 2020 deaths American entomologists American expatriates in Canada American expatriates in Sweden Coleopterists Harvard University staff San Jose State University alumni Smithsonian Institution people University of Alberta alumni 20th-century American zoologists 21st-century American zoologists American taxonomists