Foster Hendrickson Benjamin (1895–1936) was an American entomologist and

lepidopterist Lepidopterology ()) is a branch of entomology concerning the scientific study of moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies. Someone who studies in this field is a lepidopterist or, archaically, an aurelian. Origins Post-Renaissance, t ...

Biography

Benjamin was born in 1895, and was friends with George P. Engelhardt and Jacob Doll, who introduced him to entomology. In 1921 he graduated from

Cornell University 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 tea ...

, and got a job from Mississippi State Plant Board. He became a curator of William Barnes Museum in 1922 at Decatur, Illinois, and by 1927 became a member of the

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

and Bureau of Entomology. He was an assistant in investigations of the Mexican and Mediterranean fruit flies, that he found in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

in 1927, and in

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 ...

, 1929. He became a member of the Bureau of Entomology, a division of

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, where he remained until his death in 1936.

References

American lepidopterists 1895 births 1936 deaths Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni American curators Date of birth missing Date of death missing 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub