Charles Thomas Brues (June 20, 1879,

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

– July 22, 1955, Crescent City,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Biography

Brues studied at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He was appointed field agent of the Bureau of Entomology,

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

1904-05, curator of invertebrate zoology at the

Milwaukee Public Museum The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is a natural and human history museum in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The museum was chartered in 1882 and opened to the public in 1884; it is a not-for-profit organization operated by the Milwaukee Public Mus ...

1905-09, and then became instructor in economic entomology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His contributions on embryology and the habits of insects, notably

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

(

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

s, bees, etc.) and

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

(

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

es,

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

s, etc.) are highly instructive. He was editor of the ''Bulletin'' of the Wisconsin Natural History Society 1907-09, and in 1910 was appointed editor of ''Psyche'', a journal of entomology. In 1913, while employed at the

Bussey Institution The Bussey Institute (1883–1936) was a respected biological institute at Harvard University. It was named for Benjamin Bussey, who, in 1835, endowed the establishment of an undergraduate school of agriculture and horticulture and donated land in ...

, he was part of a three-person team (along with

Ernest Tyzzer Ernest Edward Tyzzer (August 30, 1875 – January 23, 1965) was an American physician, pathologist and parasitologist. He was involved in cancer research but is particularly noted for his work in parasitology, describing numerous new species of ...

and Dr. Richard P. Strong) that studied tropical diseases in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. Brues is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

snake, ''

Mastigodryas bruesi Barbour's tropical racer (''Mastigodryas bruesi'') is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the Caribbean. Etymology The specific name, ''bruesi'', is in honor American entomologist Charles Thomas Brues, wh ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Brues", p. 41).

Works

*''A Key to the Families of North American Insects'' (1915)
Scanned version
(with

Axel Leonard Melander Axel Leonard Melander () was an American entomologist specialising in Diptera and Hymenoptera. His collection is shared between the German Entomological Institute and the National Museum of Natural History. Educational career He received his ...

). *''Insects and Human Welfare'' (1920, reprinted 1947). *''Classification of Insects'' (1931). * ''Insect Dietary : An Account of the Food Habits of Insects'' (1945).

References

Sources

*Allen G. Debus (Editor) (1968). ''World Who’s Who in Science. A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present''. Chicago: Marquis-Who’s Who. xvi + 1,855 pp. *

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has article ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brues, Charles Thomas American entomologists 1879 births 1955 deaths University of Texas at Austin alumni Columbia University alumni People from Wheeling, West Virginia People from Crescent City, Florida