George F. Edmunds (entomologist)

George F. Edmunds Jr. (April 28, 1920–March 4, 2006) was an American

entomologist specialising in mayflies. He has been called "the greatest of living North American researchers on Ephemeroptera",^[1] and "the first biogeographer of Ephemeroptera".^[2]

Biography

George F. Edmunds Jr. was born in

mayflies until his death in 2006. He pursued a second interest on plant-pest interactions, based on a study of the black pineleaf scale insect.^[1]

Edmunds, with Traver, reworked the taxonomy of the Ephemeroptera, starting in 1954.[3]^[4] In 1979, with W. P. McCafferty, he proposed a new "higher classification" of the group, with two suborders, Pannota and Schistonota.^[5]

*Serratella* (*S. ignita* pictured) is one of 35 mayfly genera named by Edmunds.^[2]

Edmunds described and named 35 new genera and 79 new species of mayfly.^[2]

Honors and distinctions

The 7th International Conference on Ephemeroptera, at the University of Maine in August 1992, was dedicated to Edmunds.^[1] The mayfly experts Janice G. Peters and Michael D. Hubbard described him as "the greatest of living North American researchers on Ephemeroptera".^[1] W. P. McCafferty, making the dedicatory address at that conference, called him "the first biogeographer of Ephemeroptera", and listed 114 of his publications on mayflies. Ten species and two genera (Edmundsius and Edmundsula) of mayfly are named after him, along with a beetle, a cranefly, and a stonefly.^[2]

His book on the mayflies of North and Central America

subimago of the mayfly has been described as "monumental, demonstrating his acute ability to synthesize his observations and knowledge of systematics, phylogeny, morphology, paleontology, developmental biology, behaviour and ecology into unified explanatory theories".^[2]

Works

Edmunds, George F.; Jensen, Steven L.; Berner, Lewis (1976). The Mayflies of North and Central America.
ISBN 978-0-8166-0759-4
.

Edmunds, George F.; McCafferty, W. P. (1988). "The mayfly subimago" (PDF). Annual Review of Entomology. 33 (1): 509–527.

References

^
ISSN 0165-0424
.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCafferty, W. P. (1995) [1992, as Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Ephemeroptera, University of Maine, August 1992]. "George Edmunds, Ephemeropterist Par Excellence". Current Directions in Research on Ephemeroptera (PDF). Toronto: Canadian Scholar's Press.
^ Edmunds, G. F. Jr.; Traver, J. R (1954). "An outline of a reclassification of the Ephemeroptera". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington (56): 236–240.
^ Edmunds, G. F. Jr.; Traver, J. R (1954). "The classification of the Ephemeroptera. I. Ephemeroidea: Behningiidae". Annual Review of the Entomological Sociwety of America (52): 43–51.
^ McCafferty, W. P.; Edmunds, George F. (1979). "The Higher Classification of the Ephemeroptera and Its Evolutionary Basis" (PDF). Annals of the Entomological Society of America (72): 5–12.
^ Edmunds, Jensen & Berner 1976.
^ Edmunds & McCafferty 1988.

[Peters_Hubbard_2009-1] 
ISSN 0165-0424
.

[McCafferty_1995-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCafferty, W. P. (1995) [1992, as Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Ephemeroptera, University of Maine, August 1992]. "George Edmunds, Ephemeropterist Par Excellence". Current Directions in Research on Ephemeroptera (PDF). Toronto: Canadian Scholar's Press.

[3] Edmunds, G. F. Jr.; Traver, J. R (1954). "An outline of a reclassification of the Ephemeroptera". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington (56): 236–240.

[4] Edmunds, G. F. Jr.; Traver, J. R (1954). "The classification of the Ephemeroptera. I. Ephemeroidea: Behningiidae". Annual Review of the Entomological Sociwety of America (52): 43–51.

[5] McCafferty, W. P.; Edmunds, George F. (1979). "The Higher Classification of the Ephemeroptera and Its Evolutionary Basis" (PDF). Annals of the Entomological Society of America (72): 5–12.

[FOOTNOTEEdmundsJensenBerner1976-6] Edmunds, Jensen & Berner 1976.

[FOOTNOTEEdmundsMcCafferty1988-7] Edmunds & McCafferty 1988.

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