Friday, May 26, 2006

Blast from the Past

This week's ARS News has a story about Asa Fitch, an entomologist from the 19th century. Seems Asa kept very detailed notes on aphids, including the non-native cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae) and Liosomaphis berberidis. He recorded everything from morphological descriptions to detailed explanations of their behavior. Best of all, the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) has put the notes and drawings online, all 800 pages of them! Note that the taxonomy Fitch was using is different than what exists today - try looking under genus Aphis" for both of the species mentioned above.

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