H. Radclyffe Roberts

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H. Radclyffe Roberts
Black and white photograph of a Roberts wearing a suit towards the end of his life.
Portrait of Roberts accompanying Ruth Patrick's obituary of him[1]
Born(1906-03-26)March 26, 1906
Villanova, Pennsylvania, US
DiedJune 11, 1982(1982-06-11) (aged 76)
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, US
Known forMosquito Atlas (with E.S. Ross)
Spouse
Enid Hazel Warden Roberts
​
​
(m. 1933⁠–⁠1982)​
Children3
Academic background
Education
ThesisA Comparative Study of the Subfamilies of the Acrididae (Orthoptera) Primarily on the Basis of Their Phallic Structures (1941)
Academic work
DisciplineEntomology
Sub-disciplineAcridology
InstitutionsAcademy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

Howard Radclyffe Roberts Jr. (March 26, 1906 – June 11, 1982) was an American entomologist known for his work on grasshoppers. His 1941 University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. dissertation was an early work highlighting the role phallic structures could play in grasshopper taxonomy. While serving in World War II, he and Edward Shearman Ross cowrote The Mosquito Atlas, used by the armed forces to identify malaria-transmitting mosquitos. Roberts worked for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP), serving as its managing director from 1947 to 1972. He described dozens of grasshopper species from North and South America, and also is the eponym of several taxa named in his honor.

Early life and education[edit]

Roberts Mr. & Mrs. H. Radclyffe (Eleanor P. Butcher) Ph. Me. Rd. Sa. Rb. Pa'99 / Juniors Msrs. H. Radclyffe Jr, Paul, Edw & Clarence L. / Phone No 28 BrynM "Green Bank Farm" Villa Nova Pa
The Robertses in the 1923 Philadelphia Social Register
Eleanor Page Roberts, c. 1905[2]

Roberts was born on March 26, 1906, in Villanova, Pennsylvania,[3] into an upper-class Philadelphia family.[4] His parents were Howard Radclyffe Roberts (son of the sculptor Howard Roberts[5][6]) and Eleanor Page Roberts (née Butcher);[1] he was one of four sons.[7] He attended Haverford School, and graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1925.[1] Francis Beach White, who was the head of St. Paul's English department, encouraged Roberts' interest in natural history;[1][8] White had ornithology as a hobby.[9][10]

Roberts graduated from Princeton University in 1929 with a Bachelor of Science in architecture.[1] He was a member of the Ivy Club, one of Princeton's eating clubs.[8] As an undergraduate, Roberts began participating in expeditions for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[1] In 1928, he went to North Carolina with M. B. Cadwalader to collect water fowl and shore birds.[11] Roberts went on several bird-collecting expeditions for the academy in the late 1920s and early 1930s, going to Trinidad[12][13] and Sudan,[14] among other places.[15] Some of these early expeditions were with the ornithologist Melbourne Armstrong Carriker to Peru.[1][15]

Research[edit]

He got his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941, where he studied under Clarence Erwin McClung; Morgan Hebard at the ANSP also encouraged his study of grasshoppers.[1] His dissertation, A Comparative Study of the Subfamilies of the Acrididae (Orthoptera) Primarily on the Basis of Their Phallic Structures, was published in Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[16] This work was among the first to make use of the male phallic complex in grasshopper taxonomy beyond species-level analysis; this analysis divided grasshoppers into two groups based on the morphology of the ejaculatory sac.[17] It remains one of the most important works on the skeletal system and sclerites of grasshopper phalluses.[18]

Roberts volunteered with the U.S. Army during World War II, joining the Medical Entomological Department. He became a Major serving with the Malaria Survey Unit in the Philippines and New Guinea.[1] In 1943, Edward S. Ross and Roberts published The Mosquito Atlas in two volumes.[19] The American Entomological Society published the volumes, which the U.S. War Department distributed in loose leaf.[4] Roberts and Ross began working on this publication at the headquarters of the 8th Service Command in Texas and finished writing it at the U.S. National Museum.[20] The entomologist Robert Matheson wrote in a review for The Quarterly Review of Biology that it "should be a great help in the identification of the species" and praised the illustrations.[21] It was important to those fighting malaria during World War II and helped saved thousands of lives.[4][22][23]

In 1966 and 1967 Roberts went to Costa Rica to collect arboreal grasshoppers.[24] In order to get the grasshoppers down from the trees he invented a machine to shoot insecticide into the canopy and then dead insects would fall to plastic tarps on the ground.[25] A parachute was launched into the treetops, and then an "insect bomb" was hoisted up to the parachute using pulleys.[1] He tested this procedure on trees near his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, before his trip.[26] The Philadelphia Inquirer discussed this as "one of his more colorful experiments" in its obituary for him.[27] Roberts made field expeditions to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela in 1976 and 1981. He deposited many specimens he collected in these trips in South American museums including La Plata Museum and the National Museum of Brazil.[28][29] Roberts' papers on Orthoptera were published over the span of 1937 to 1992; fifty-four of the grasshopper species he described remained valid names as of 2009.[17]

Learned societies Roberts belonged to included: the Entomological Society of America,[30] the American Ornithologists' Union,[31] the American Society of Mammalogists,[32] the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Zoologists, and the American Entomological Society.[8] He was also in Sigma Xi.[8]

Administratorship[edit]

Roberts became the managing director of the ANSP in 1947.[8][33] He tended to stay out of the public spotlight, being more personally involved in research than public events and fundraising, in contrast to his predecessor, Charles Cadwalader.[4] Over the course of Roberts' directorship, the research staff grew from a dozen to over one hundred.[1] As part of his efforts to professionalize the research staff, Roberts recruited scientists from outside Philadelphia for paid positions which previously were often held by self-financed volunteers.[4] While he was managing director, the ANSP established its Women's Committee.[1] His directorship also saw the establishment of a new Department of Limnology in May 1948.[34] As director Roberts took a personal interest in the Fish Department with Charles C. G. Chaplin and James Erwin Böhlke; he accompanied them on several trips to the Caribbean for Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters. Roberts also initiated the monograph series Notulae Naturae for short scientific articles.[1] Roberts retired from the role of managing director in 1972 with the title Curator Emeritus of the Department of Entomology.[28]

Personal life[edit]

Roberts married Enid Hazel Warden (1912–2006[35]) on August 23, 1933.[3] She was originally from Devonshire, England;[1] they married in London.[36] His wife sometimes accompanied him on field expeditions;[15] while in Mexico, she collected the type specimen of Coelostemma hazelae, which the American malacologist Henry Augustus Pilsbry named after her.[α] They had three children: Pauline Stella Roberts, Radclyffe Burnand Roberts, and Eleanor Page Roberts.[1] His son was also an entomologist; his research focused on bees.[37]

Roberts was also on the board of the Children's Seashore House from 1943 to 1982 and also served as its president for ten years. He was also a board member for the Fairmount Park Art Association.[1] He became the chairman of the publication committee for Sculpture of A City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze and Gold after the initial chairman had to fulfill duties for Expo '74.[38][39] Roberts was also on the advisory board for Swiss Pines gardens. For leisure he grew orchids, and competed in orchid shows.[1]

Death and legacy[edit]

Roberts died on June 11, 1982, at Bryn Mawr Hospital.[27] He had been planning an expedition to do additional fieldwork in Brazil before he fell ill. Ruth Patrick wrote his obituary for Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[1] Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina  [es] also published an obituary of Roberts,[28] as did The Philadelphia Inquirer[27] and Princeton Alumni Weekly.[40] The Social Register also noted his death.[41]

Taxa named in honor of Roberts (cited in their original combinations) include:

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Roberts' parakeet[42][43]
  2. ^ Roberts' false brook salamander[44]
  3. ^ Roberts' treefrog, named after him and his wife[44]
  4. ^ Named after him and his son R. B. Roberts
  5. ^ a b Roberts was known as "Rad" to his friends
  6. ^ Named by his son; γονεύς means "progenitor"

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Patrick, Ruth (1983). "Howard Radclyffe Roberts (1906–1982)". Obituaries. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 135: 268–271. JSTOR 4064811.
  2. ^ "Easter Wedding at Holy Trinity". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 152, no. 116. April 26, 1905. p. 2.
  3. ^ a b "Howard R(adclyffe) Roberts". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. 2001. Gale H1000083455 – via Gale In Context: Biography.
  4. ^ a b c d e Peck, Robert McCracken Peck; Stroud, Patricia Tyson (2012). "Regrouping and Looking Forward in the Postwar Years". A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 348–349. ISBN 978-0-8122-4380-2.
  5. ^ Sellin, David (1975). "The First Pose: Howard Roberts, Thomas Eakins, and a Century of Philadelphia Nudes". Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin. 70 (311/312): 5, 47–48, 54. doi:10.2307/3795229. JSTOR 3795229.
  6. ^ "Hester Prynne & Pearl". The Library Company of Philadelphia Digital Collections. 2020. OBJ 540. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  7. ^ "Howard R. Roberts". Obituaries. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 191, no. 103. October 11, 1924. p. 26. ProQuest 1830898659.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Dr. Roberts Becomes Museum's Managing Director". Frontiers: A Magazine of Natural History. Vol. 11, no. 3. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. February 1947. pp. 80, 83.
  9. ^ "Francis Beach White". The New York Times. Vol. 97, no. 32,867. January 19, 1948. p. 23.
  10. ^ Wylie, Craig (Spring 1948). "Francis Beach White" (PDF). Alumni Horae. 28 (1): 10–11.
  11. ^ "Field Work". The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Year Book. 1928: 39. 1929.
  12. ^ "Scientific Notes and News". Science. 74 (1907): 68. 1931. JSTOR 1656718.
  13. ^ W. S. (1934). "Roberts on the Birds of Trinidad". The Auk. 51 (3): 412. doi:10.2307/4077718. JSTOR 4077718.
  14. ^ Peck, Robert McCracken Peck; Stroud, Patricia Tyson (2012). "Academy Expeditions, 1928 to 1960". A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8122-4380-2.
  15. ^ a b c Peck, Robert McCracken (2000). "To the Ends of the Earth for Science: Research Expeditions of the Academy of Natural Sciences: The First 150 Years, 1812–1962". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 150: 15–46. JSTOR 4065061.
  16. ^ Roberts, H. Radclyffe (1941). "A Comparative Study of the Subfamilies of the Acrididae (Orthoptera) Primarily on the Basis of Their Phallic Structures". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 93: 201–246. JSTOR 4064333.
  17. ^ a b Song, Hojun (2010). "Grasshopper Systematics: Past, Present and Future". Journal of Orthoptera Research. 19 (1): 57–68. doi:10.1665/034.019.0112. JSTOR 20789567.
  18. ^ Eades, David C. (2000). "Evolutionary Relationships of Phallic Structures of Acridomorpha (Orthoptera)". Journal of Orthoptera Research (9): 181. doi:10.2307/3503648. JSTOR 3503648.
  19. ^ Ross, Edward S.; Roberts, H. Radclyffe (1943). The Mosquito Atlas. Vol. I–II. Philadelphia: American Entomological Society, Academy of Natural Sciences. hdl:2027/coo.31924018291900.
  20. ^ Anderson, W. H. (1943). "Minutes of the 538th Regular Meeting of the Entomological Society of Washington June 3, 1943". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 45 (8): 205–206.
  21. ^ Matheson, Robert (1946). "The Mosquito Atlas". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 21 (2): 190–191. doi:10.1086/395242. JSTOR 2812547.
  22. ^ McCoy, Oliver R. (1963). "War Department Provisions for Malaria Control". In Hoff, Ebbe Curtis (ed.). Communicable Diseases: Malaria. Preventative Medicine in World War II. Vol. VI. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army. p. 49.
  23. ^ "Atlas to Aid Service War on Mosquito". The Pasadena Post. United Press. July 25, 1943. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com World Collection.
  24. ^ Roberts, H. Radclyffe (1973). "Arboreal Orthoptera in the Rain Forests of Costa Rica Collected with Insecticide: A Report on the Grasshoppers (Acrididae), including New Species". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 125: 49–66. JSTOR 4064682.
  25. ^ "Bugs 'Rain' on Scientist, to His Delight". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 274, no. 86. March 27, 1966. p. 2-15. ProQuest 1841479885.
  26. ^ Apt, Jay (February 1, 1966). "Treetop Hunting For Grasshoppers". Courier-Post. Vol. 91, no. 18. Camden, NJ. p. 19. ProQuest 1917528774.
  27. ^ a b c "H. Radclyffe Roberts Jr., 76, biologist". Obituaries. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 306, no. 164. June 13, 1982. p. 8-C. ProQuest 1843142915.
  28. ^ a b c Ronderos, R. A. (1982). "H. Radclyffe Roberts (1906–1982)". Revista de la Sociedad Entomólogica Argentina (in Spanish). 41 (1–4): 92.
  29. ^ Donato, Mariano (2000). "Los ejemplares Tipo de Orthoptera depositados en la colección del Museo de La Plata" [The type specimen of Orthoptera deposited at the La Plata Museum collection]. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina. 59 (1–4): 61–84.
  30. ^ "Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 27–30, 1940". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 34 (1): 261. 1941. doi:10.1093/aesa/34.1.255.
  31. ^ Hicks, Lawrence E. (1944). "A Preliminary List of the Members of the American Ornithologists' Union Engaged in the War Services of the United Nations". The Auk. 61 (1): 198. doi:10.2307/4079639. JSTOR 4079639.
  32. ^ "List of Members of the American Society of Mammalogists". Journal of Mammalogy. 46 (1): 167. 1965. JSTOR 1377834.
  33. ^ "News and Notes". Science. 105 (2716): 62. January 17, 1947. doi:10.1126/science.105.2716.61.
  34. ^ Hearty, Ryan (2020). "Redefining Boundaries: Ruth Myrtle Patrick's Ecological Program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1947–1975". Journal of the History of Biology. 53 (4): 587–630. doi:10.1007/s10739-020-09622-5.
  35. ^ "Roberts, Enid Hazel". Funeral Announcements. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 117, no. 271 (City ed.). February 26, 2006. p. B6.
  36. ^ Heydt, Herman A. II (October 6, 1933). "'29". Among the Alumni. Princeton Alumni Weekly. Vol. 34, no. 3. pp. 76, 78. ISSN 0149-9270.
  37. ^ Sutherland, D. (1989). "Radclyffe Burnand Roberts 1938–1988". Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America. 35 (1): 55. doi:10.1093/besa/35.1.55.
  38. ^ Seltzer, Ruth (November 14, 1974). "A Close Look at the 'Sculpture of a City'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 291, no. 137. p. 2-D. ProQuest 1842413399.
  39. ^ Fairmount Park Art Association (1974). "Acknowledgements". Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze and Stone. New York, NY: Walker. p. 2. ISBN 0-8027-0459-X.
  40. ^ "Howard Radclyffe Roberts Jr. '29". Memorials. Princeton Alumni Weekly. Vol. 83, no. 3. December 15, 1982. p. 21. ISSN 0149-9270.
  41. ^ Social Register, 1983. Vol. 97. Social Register Association. November 1982. p. 838.
  42. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2014). "Roberts, H. R.". The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. London: Bloomsbury. p. 471. ISBN 978-1-4729-0573-4.
  43. ^ Prestwich, Arthur A. (1963). "Psilopsiagon aurifrons robertsi Carriker". "I Name This Parrot ...": Brief Biographies of Men and Women in Whose Honour Commemorative Names Have Been Given (2nd ed.). Edenbridge, Eng.: Arthur A. Prestwich. pp. 78–79.
  44. ^ a b Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2013). "Roberts". The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter: Pelagic Publishing. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-907807-41-1.

Patronym authorities[edit]

  1. ^ Pilsbry, Herny A. (1953). "Inland Mollusca of Northern Mexico. II. Urocoptidae, Pupillidae, Strobilopsidae, Valloniidae and Cionellidae". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 105: 159. JSTOR 4064472.
  2. ^ Pilsbry, Henry A. (1932). "South American Land and Freshwater Mollusks, VIII: Collections of the Carriker–Roberts Peruvian Expedition of 1932". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 84: 390–391. JSTOR 4064136.
  3. ^ Carriker, M. A. Jr. (1933). "Descriptions of New Birds from Peru, with Notes on Other Little-Known Species". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 85: 4. JSTOR 4064167.
  4. ^ Taylor, Edward H. (1938). "Concerning Mexican Salamanders". The University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 25 (14) (published 1939): 287–289, Pl. 26, fig. 2. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.1703.
  5. ^ Rehn, James A. G.; Rehn, John W. H. (1939). "A Review of the New World Eumastacinae (Orthoptera, Acrididae): Part I". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 91: 172–175. JSTOR 4064289.
  6. ^ Taylor, Edward H. (1939). "New Species of Mexican Anura". The University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 26 (11) (published 1940): 393–396.
  7. ^ Hebard, Morgan (1941). "A New Species of Pterophylla from Eastern Mexico (Orthoptera; Tettigoniidae; Pseudophyllinae)". Notulae Naturae. 81: 1–4.
  8. ^ Rehn, James A. G. (1944). "The Genera Aplatacris and Thrasyderes (Orthoptera; Acrididae; Romaleinae; Tropidacres)". Notulae Naturae. 131: 5–9.
  9. ^ Laffoon, Jean (1946). "The Philippine mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, subgenus Aedes". Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 36 (7): 230–232. JSTOR 24531053.
  10. ^ Rehn, James A. G.; Grant, Harold J. (1959). "A Review of the Romaleinae (Orthoptera; Acrididae) Found in America North of Mexico". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 111: 216–217. JSTOR 4064509.
  11. ^ Kevan, D. Keith McE.; Singh, Asket; Akbar, Syed S. (1964). "A Revision of the Mexican Pyrgomorphidae (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) I. Genera Other than Sphenarium". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 116: 268–274. JSTOR 4064626.
  12. ^ Emsley, Michael G. (1970). "A Revision of the Steirodontine Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae: Steirodontini)". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 122: 183–184. JSTOR 4064652.
  13. ^ Descamps, M. (1973). "Diagnoses et signalisations d'Eumastacoidea [Orth.]. IV. Amerique". Annales de la Société entomologique de France. N.S. 9 (4): 953–955.
  14. ^ Peña, Luis E. (1974). "Nueva especie de Peltolobus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) para las laderas occidentales de Cordillera de los Andes". Revista Chilena de Entomología. 8: 117–118.
  15. ^ Descamps, Marius. "La faune dendrophile neotropicale. I. Revue des Proctolabinae (Orth. Acrididae)". Acrida. 5 (2): 153.
  16. ^ Ronderos, Ricardo A. (1976). "Revision del Genero Parascopas Bruner". Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina. 35 (1–4): 188.
  17. ^ Descamps, Marius (1978). "La faune dendrophile néotropicale II. Revue des Taeniophorini et Ophthalmolampini (Orth. Romaleidae)". Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Zool. 3e sér. 517: 470.
  18. ^ Ronderos, Ricardo A.; Sanchez, Norma E. (1983). "Revision del Genero Propedies Hebard (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae)" [Revision of the genus Propedies Hebard (Orthopera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae)]. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina. 42 (1–4): 214–215.
  19. ^ Carbonell, Carlos S. (1984). "Radacridium nordestinum: A New Genus and Species of Romaleid Grasshoppers from the Brazilian Caatinga (Orthoptera, Acridoidea)". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 136: 123–129. JSTOR 4064822.
  20. ^ Rentz, David C.F.; Gurney, Ashley B. (1985). "The shield-backed katydids of South America (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae) and a new tribe of Conocephalinae with genera in Chile and Australia". Entomologica Scandinavica. 16 (1): 94. doi:10.1163/187631285X00054.
  21. ^ Roth, L.M. (1985). "A revision of the cockroach genus Parasymploce (Dictyoptera: Blattaria: Blattellidae)". Journal of Natural History. 19 (3): 459–461. doi:10.1080/00222938500770321.
  22. ^ Roberts, Radclyffe B.; Brooks, Robert W. (1987). "Agapostemonine bees of mesoamerica (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)". The University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 53 (7): 378–379.
  23. ^ Nickle, David A. (2005). "Additional notes on the genus Phlugis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Meconematinae) with the descriptions of two new arboreal species from Costa Rica". Journal of Orthoptera Research. 14 (1): 59–60. doi:10.1665/1082-6467(2005)14[57:ANOTGP]2.0.CO;2.
  24. ^ Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J.; Cardona-Granda, Juan Manuel (2015). Introducción a los Saltamontes de Colombia (Orthoptera: Caelitera: Acridomorpha, Tetrigoidea & Tridactyloidea) [Introduction to the Grasshoppers of Colombia (Orthoptera: Caelifera: Acrididea: Acridomoprha, Tetrigoidea & Tridactyloidea)]. Colombia. pp. 444–445. ISBN 978-1-329-39264-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading[edit]

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