Willis Stanley Blatchley (6 October 1859, North Madison

Madison, Connecticut

Madison is a town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The population was 18,812 at the 2000 census....

, Connecticut - 28 May 1940, Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, Indiana) was an American entomologist, malacologist and geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

. In his biological work, Willis Blatchley made contributions to the study of Coleoptera, Orthoptera

Orthoptera

Orthoptera is an order of insects with paurometabolous or incomplete metamorphosis, including the grasshoppers, crickets and locusts.Many insects in this order produce sound by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps...

, Hemiptera

Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...

, and the freshwater molluscs

Mollusca

The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...

 of Indiana.

Though born in Connecticut, his parents moved to Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 in 1860, the year after his birth. He attended high school in Bainbridge

Bainbridge, Indiana

Bainbridge is a town in Monroe Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States. The population was 746 at the 2010 census. This town was named after the prominent war hero of the time William Bainbridge. He was one of the captains of the original 6 frigates of the US navy...

 and enrolled at Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 in 1883, graduating with a B.A. in 1887 and an M.A. in 1891. There he worked under ichthyologist David Starr Jordan

David Starr Jordan

David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...

 and geologist John Casper Branner

John Casper Branner

John Casper Branner was an American geologist and academic who discovered bauxite in Arkansas in 1887 as State Geologist. He was Chair of the Department of Botany and Geology at Indiana University. He served as President of the Indiana Academy of Science in 1889. He was President of the...

. Blatchley received an honorary degree (LL.D.) from Indiana University in 1921. From 1887-1893 he taught at Terre Haute

Terre Haute, Indiana

Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...

 High School where he was Head of the Science Department from 1887-1893. From 1894-1910 he was State Geologist for Indiana. After being defeated for re-election in 1911, he retired from public office, but continued his natural history work as an amateur. Though much of his work focused on the fauna of Indiana, he traveled to Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, 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...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 (1922-23).

Blatchley married Clara A. Fordice (or Fordyce?, 1854-1928), of Russellville

Russellville, Indiana

Russellville is a town in Russell Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States. The population was 358 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Russellville is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....

, Indiana, on 2 May, 1882. They had two sons, Raymond Silliman Blatchley (11 February 1883 - 27 September 1953, Los Angeles, California--biography) and Ralph F. Blatchley (1885-1955, Dunedin, Florida; photo from Dunedin, Florida).

Works

• An illustrated descriptive catalogue of the Coleoptera or beetles (exclusive of the Rhynchophora) known to occur in Indiana. (1910)
• Orthoptera of Northeastern America. (1920)
• Heteroptera of Eastern North America. (1926)
• 11 papers (1927-1930) in the Florida Entomologist) on the Scarabaeidae
  Scarabaeidae
  The family Scarabaeidae as currently defined consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide. The species in this large family are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family is fairly unstable, with numerous competing theories, and new proposals appearing quite...
  
   of Florida.

Blatchley described several new taxa.

External links

• Works at Biodiversity Heritage Library
• ISGS Blatchley as a geologist.Portrait.
• NDSU Biography and type information.
• Scarab Workers World Directory--brief biography at Univ. Nebraska
• Famous Malacologists--Illinois Natural History Survey
• Dr. Willis Stanley Blatchley--Historical Marker, Dunedin, Florida
• Rootsweb--information about marriage
• Obituary of spouse--Clara Fordice, d. 8 December 1928, Dunedin, Florida
• DUNEDIN CEMETERY, Dunedin, Pinellas County, Florida—graves of Willis Blatchley, Clara Blatchley, Ralph Blatchley