Robert Evans Snodgrass

Robert Evans Snodgrass ( born July 5, 1875 in St. Louis, † September 4, 1962 in Washington, DC) was an American entomologist and artist. Particularly well known he was by his excellent illustrated publications on the anatomy, morphology, evolution and metamorphosis of insects and other arthropods.

Snodgrass was born as the first child of the couple coming from Ohio James Cathcart Sondgrass and Annie Elizabeth Evans Snodgrass. In three years later was followed by a sister and five years later a brother. In 1883, the family of Saint -Louis moved to Wetmore (Kansas), where his father found work in a bank. As Snodgrass was 15 years old, the family moved again, this time to Ontario (California ) on a ranch that covered an area of 81,000 square meters and have been grown on the oranges, plums and wine.

Even as a child Snodgrass started by itself with the preparation of birds. He attended a Methodist school, later Chaffey College. There he studied Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, chemistry and drawing. Since there was no religion -related biology teaching at this school, Snodgrass added at leisure his knowledge through self-study of the works of Darwin, Huxley and Spencer. His confident appearance for their theories of evolution giving him problems both at home and in the community. At the age of 20 years Snodgrass began a zoology degree at Stanford University. After the initial interest for vertebrates and ornithology he soon switched to entomology, by Vernon Lyman Kellogg significantly influenced ( 1867-1937 ). At Kellogg also Snodgrass first scientific publications on the mouthparts and the anatomy of the jaw lice originated ' ( Mallophaga ). During his time at Stanford Snodgrass participated in two expeditions: the first led him under the direction of David Starr Jordan on the Pribilof Islands, the second under the direction of Edmund Heller on the Galapagos Islands. His bachelor's degree ( Artium Baccalaureus, AB short ) in Zoology Snodgrass received in 1901. Subsequently, he taught at the State College of Washington in Pullman, went for a short time after Stanford and began his artistic career in San Francisco. In Europe he was known in particular the fact that he represented a pragmatic view in the segment theory of the insect head, after this head is composed only of four metamera.

In the following years, he moved often between art and science. He worked from 1906 in the Ministry of Agriculture of the United States ( USDA), traveled to England, recorded as a freelance artist and cartoonist in New York, sold paintings to farmers in Indiana, worked as an entomologist in Indiana and eventually went back to Washington to the USDA. From 1924 to 1947 Snodgrass also taught at the University of Maryland. Snodgrass died at the age of 87 years at his home in Washington DC and left behind two daughters and his wife Ruth.

Snodgrass has received many awards, especially for his scientific achievements. In addition to the honorary doctorate he became an honorary member of the Royal Entomological Society of London and a corresponding member of the American Entomological Society. He also received the Joseph Leidy Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

Important scientific work

• Anatomy and physiology of the honeybee. New York 1925. ( Another edition as Comstock Book, Cornell, 1985, ISBN 978-0-8014-9302-7 )
• Insects, their ways and Means of living. Vol V, Smithsonian Institution Series, 1930. (Reprinted Applewood 2006, ISBN 978-1-55709-530-5 )
• The principles of insect morphology. McGraw- Hill, New York 1935. ( More support than Comstock Book, Cornell 1993, ISBN 978-0-8014-2883-8 )
• Textbook of arthropod anatomy. Comstock, Ithaca, 1952.