Florence E. Bemis

Florence Eugenie Bemis (1861?–?) was a late 19th and early 20th century American entomologist and expert in whiteflies.

Scientific career

Bemis worked at Stanford University in the laboratory of entomologist Vernon Lyman Kellogg and in the field collecting specimens and making biological observations. She studied insects of the Aleyrodidae family, which are known as whiteflies and at the time were also called mealy-winged flies for the waxy white secretion that covers their wings. In 1904, she published a long monograph on a subset of these insects, entitled ''The Aleyrodds, or Mealy-Winged Flies, of California, with References to Other American Species''. In it she described 19 new species of whiteflies found in California, together with a catalogue of whitefly species found elsewhere in America. Although she placed them all in the genus Aleyrodes, many of them have since been moved into other whitefly genera, including Aleuropleurocelus, Aleuroparadoxus, Aleurothrixus, Pealius, Tetraleurodes, and Trialeurodes. Her work is credited with greatly advancing knowledge of California species of whiteflies.

The taxonomic genus '' Bemisia'' within the family Aleyrodidae, comprising some of the whiteflies, is named in her honor.

Species discovered

*''Aleyrodes amnicola''
*''Aleyrodes diasemus''
*''Aleyrodes errans'': now '' Tetraleurodes errans''
*''Aleyrodes extraniens''
*''Aleyrodes glacialis'': now ''Trialeurodes glacialis''
*''Aleyrodes hutchingsi'': now ''Trialeurodes hutchingsi''
*''Aleyrodes interrogationis'': now '' Aleurothrixus interrogationis''
*''Aleyrodes iridescens'': now ''Aleuroparadoxus iridescens''
*''Aleyrodes kelloggi'': now '' Pealius kelloggi''
*''Aleyrodes madroni'': now ''Trialeurodes madroni''
*''Aleyrodes maskelli'': now '' Pealius maskelli''
*''Aleyrodes merlini'': now ''Trialeurodes merlini''
*''Aleyrodes nigrans'': now ''Aleuropleurocelus nigrans''
*''Aleyrodes pruinosus''
*'' Aleyrodes quaintancei''
*''Aleyrodes stanfordi''
*''Aleyrodes splendens'': now '' Tetraleurodes errans''
*''Aleyrodes tentaculatus'': now ''Trialeurodes tentaculatus''
*'' Aleyrodes wellmanae''

See also

* List of whitefly species

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bemis, Florence Eugenie
20th-century American zoologists
American women entomologists
20th-century American women scientists
19th-century American zoologists
19th-century American women scientists
Stanford University people