John Hewitt (herpetologist)

John Hewitt ( born December 23, 1880 in Dronfield near Sheffield, England; † August 4, 1961 in Grahamstown, South Africa) was a South African zoologist British origin. His research focus was the herpetofauna of the Eastern Cape.

Life and work

Scientifically already interested as a schoolboy, Hewiit studied at the University of Cambridge natural sciences. In 1903 he graduated from Jesus College to the Bachelor of Arts. From 1905 to 1908 he was curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, Borneo.

In 1909 he moved to Pretoria in South Africa, where he accepted a position as assistant curator of lower vertebrates at the Transvaal Museum. In 1910 he took over from Selmar Schönland as director of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown in today's Eastern Cape Province. Despite low funding Hewitt built by hand on an extensive herpetological collection. 1920 and 1938 enhancements have been added to the museum. In September 1941, a fire destroyed the main building of the majority of Hewitt's collection, including many preparations and the list of new acquisitions.

Hewitt has received numerous awards for his research, including in 1935 an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University. When he retired in 1958, the archaeologist Hilary Deacon became his successor at the Albany Museum.

Hewitt was one of many interests naturalist. His first attention was given to spiders, about which he wrote numerous articles. His first herpetological work was 1905 on the snakes of Sarawak. In the period 1909-1938 he authored 45 scientific papers on amphibians and reptiles, of which the busiest with the systematics and distribution. The focus of the described by Hewitt reptile and amphibian fauna was formed in South Africa, among which taxa are like the Eastwood - scourge Plated Lizard ( Tetradactylus eastwoodae ), the King's ghost frog ( Heleophryne regis), the Cape ghost frog ( Heleophryne rosei ), the Natal ghost frog ( Hadromophryne natalensis ), Acontias namaquensis, Cordylus coeruleopunctatus, the Namaqua dwarf chameleon ( Bradypodion occidentale ) and several types of thick-toed geckos ( Pachydactilus ). 1911 Hewitt took together with Baron Paul Methuen Ayshford a expedition to Madagascar, about which he wrote in 1913 two scientific articles.

From 1931 Hewitt published several articles on turtles. Acquired from the Albany Museum turtles extensive collection of James Edwin Duerden (1869-1937) was greatly enlarged by Hewitt. Based on these specimens differed Hewitt, many local populations and described many of them as a new subspecies. But from the tent turtle ( Psammobates tentorius ) Hewitt led to 27 different subspecies, of which he newly described 16. In her monograph revision of the African Tortoises and Turtles of the Suborder Cryptodira from 1957 about the turtles and tortoises of Africa, however, Arthur Loveridge and Ernest Edward Williams ( 1914-1998 ) accepted only three subspecies.

Hewitt published a book, a richly illustrated field guide to the amphibians and reptiles ( but also other vertebrates) of the Eastern Cape Province. This work was published in 1918 and 1937 in two parts. After the fire in 1941, Hewitt gave on the herpetological work and devoted himself to archeology.

Dedikationsnamen

According to John Hewitt, among others, the following taxa are named: Anhydrophryne hewitti (1947 by Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons ), Goggia hewitti (1995 by Aaron Matthew Bauer, William Roy Branch and David Andrew Good) and Heleophryne hewitti (1988 by Richard Charlton Boycott ).