Francis Xavier Williams (6 August 1882,

Martinez, California Martinez (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Martínez'') is a city and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, t ...

– 16 December 1967,

Chula Vista, California Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the Largest cities in Southern California, seventh largest city in Southern California, the List of largest California cities by population, fifteenth largest city ...

) 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 ...

. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from St. Ignatius College (now known as the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

) in 1903, a BA from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, his MA from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1912 and his Doctorate of Science from

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 ...

in 1915. He participated as entomologist in a 17-month (1905–1906) expedition to the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

, collecting about 4,000 insects, including many new species. In 1917, he moved to Honolulu to work for 32 years for the

Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA) was an unincorporated, voluntary organization of sugarcane plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands. Its objective was to promote the mutual benefits of its members and the developme ...

. Before he left, he gave his collection of nearly 8000 specimens and his library of 649 books and journals to the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

. After his retirement and return to California in 1949, he gave the academy over 15,000 specimens. He published 286 scientific articles including his most important reference book ''Handbook of the Insects and Other Invertebrates of Hawaiian Sugar Cane Fields'' (1931) and a popular book, written with his wife, Louisa Clark Williams, ''Mike the Mynah'' (1946). He is the author of 146 new taxa.

Sources

* Based on the article Francis Xavier Williams * *Paul H. Arnaud Jr (1970), Lists of the Scientific Publications and Insect Taxa Described by Francis Xavier Williams (1882-1967). ''Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences'', 80 : 1-33.

External links

* American entomologists 1882 births 1967 deaths People associated with the California Academy of Sciences University of San Francisco alumni Stanford University alumni University of Kansas alumni Harvard University alumni People from Martinez, California Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub