Ephraim Porter Felt (January 7, 1868 – December 14, 1943) 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 ...

who specialised in

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 ...

Biography

Ephraim Porter Felt was born in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

on January 7, 1868, to Charles Wilson Felt and Martha Seeth Ropes Felt. He was educated at

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, and

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. From 1893 to 1895, Felt taught natural sciences at

Clinton Liberal Institute The Clinton Liberal Institute was a coeducational preparatory school established by the Universalist Church in the village of Clinton, in the Town of Kirkland, New York, in 1831, relocated to Fort Plain, New York in 1878, and remaining there un ...

. In 1895, he was appointed assistant to J.A. Lintner, the State Entomologist of New York. Following Lintner's death in 1898, Felt was appointed as State Entomologist and remained in that position until his retirement in 1928. In retirement he worked at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories in Stamford, Connecticut, where he died from a heart attack on December 14, 1943. He married Helen Maria Otterson on June 24, 1896, and they had two children. Felt worked mostly with

Nematocera The Nematocera (the name means "thread-horns") are a suborder of elongated flies with thin, segmented antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies but species from suborder Brachycera (the name means "sh ...

, particularly

Cecidomyiidae Cecidomyiidae is a family of flies known as gall midges or gall gnats. As the name implies, the larvae of most gall midges feed within plant tissue, creating abnormal plant growths called galls. Cecidomyiidae are very fragile small insects usu ...

. However, as State Entomologist for New York, the scope of his work included all insects of

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

significance. He wrote ''Insects Affecting Park and Woodland Trees'' (New York State Museum Memoir 8, 1905-1906) and ''Plant Galls and Gall Makers'' (Ithaca, N.Y., Comstock Pub. Co., 1940), and described over 1,000

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in scientific journals. He described the mosquito genus ''

Culiseta ''Culiseta'' is a genus (biology), genus of mosquitoes. Most ''Culiseta'' species are cold-adapted, and only occur in warmer climates during the colder parts of the year or at higher elevations where temperatures are lower. Species found in South ...

''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

s of the Felt-named insect species are in the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

References

*Howard, L. O. 1930 ''History of applied Entomology (Somewhat Anecdotal)''. Smiths. Miscell. Coll. 84. *Mallis, A. 1971 ''American Entomologists''. Rutgers Univ. Press New Brunswick 399-402, Portr.

External links

PDFs of papers on mosquitoes
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Felt, Ephraim Porter 1868 births 1943 deaths American entomologists Boston University alumni Cornell University alumni Dipterists Massachusetts Agricultural College alumni