Terry Lee Erwin (December 1, 1940 – May 11, 2020) 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 ...

with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. Erwin went to

Vallejo High School Vallejo High School is a high school located in Vallejo, California. It is part of the Vallejo City Unified School District and has been in the heart of Vallejo for more than 100 years. It currently serves the west side of the city (west of Int ...

and then graduated in biology in 1964, followed by a masters in 1966 from San Jose State College (now

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

). 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 – December 16, 1983) was an American entomologist, field naturalist, biogeographer, museum curator and zoology professor, known for his toughness and determination on field expeditions. Biograph ...

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 fa ...

beetles at the University of Lund under Carl H. Lindroth. 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 The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) started as the Society of Systematic Zoology in 1947. A temporary constitution was adopted at the first meeting on 28 December 1947. The updated "biologists" organization (from "zoology") became incorpor ...

from 1973 to 1975, and was the editor in chief of ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the founding editor-in-chief was Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian ...

''. 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