William Harris Ashmead
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entomologist born on 19 September 1855 at Philadelphia. He died 17 October 1908 at Washington D.C.
After his studies in Philadelphia, Ashmead worked for the publisher J. B. Lippincott Co.
J. B. Lippincott Company
J. B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott.Formed by descendants of the Religious Society of Friends, Joshua Lippincott's company began selling a line of Bibles, prayer books and other religious works before...
Later, he settled in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
where he formed his own publishing house devoted to agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. He also launched the Florida Dispatch, an agricultural weekly magazine which included a headed section devoted to injurious insects. In 1879, he began writing papers for scientific publications and, in 1887, he became a field entomologist working for the Ministry for the Agriculture of Florida. The following year, he became entomologist at the Agricultural Research station of Lake City
Lake City, Florida
Lake City is the county seat of Columbia County, Florida, in the United States. In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 12,614. In addition, it is the Principal City of the Lake City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is composed of Columbia County, and had an...
. In 1889, he worked again for the Ministry for Agriculture. The following year, and for two years, he traveled, in particular to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, to perfect his entomological knowledge.
In 1895, he obtained the post of conservation assistant in the Department of Entomology of the U.S. National Museum
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
, a position he occupied until his death. He was mainly a systematic
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...
entomologist who worked on many groups of insects, but particularly on Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants. There are over 130,000 recognized species, with many more remaining to be described. The name refers to the heavy wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek ὑμήν : membrane and...
and he published approximately 260 articles in various scientific reviews.
Works
Selected books:- Monograph of the North American Proctotrypidae. (Bulletin of the US National Museum, no. 45) Washington: US GPO, 1893.
- Descriptions of New genera and species of Hymenoptera from the Philippine Islands. (Procceedings of the US National Museum, no. 29) Washington: US GPO, 1904.
Selected articles on the Order Hymenoptera:
- "Studies on the North American Proctotrupidae, with descriptions of new species from Florida." Entomol. Am. 3: 73-76, 97-100, 117-119 (1887).
- "Descriptions of some new genera and species of Canadian Proctotrupidae." Can. Entomol. 20: 48-55 (1888).
- "Description of a new genus and new species of proctotrypid bred by Mr F.W. Urich from an embiid." J. Trin. Fld. Nat. Club 2: 264-266 (1895).
- "The phylogeny of the Hymenoptera". Proc. Ent. soc. Washington, III: 326-336 (1896) .
- "Classification of the pointed-tailed wasps, or the superfamily Proctotrypoidea.-III." J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc. 11: 86-99 (1903).
- "Descriptions of new Hymenoptera from Japan-1." J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc. 12: 65-84 (1904).