Henry Hemphill (1830–1914) was an American
malacologist, a
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...
who studies
mollusks. In particular he studied land and freshwater mollusca.
His collection of land, freshwater, and marine mollusks became holdings of the California Academy of Sciences and Stanford University.
He was born in Delaware in 1830. He worked as a bricklayer in San Diego 1865, after making gold prospecting trips in the western states. He collected mollusks as early as 1861. He published catalogues of shells for sale from the 1870s to 1890. He moved to Oakland around 1909. He died in 1914 on July 24 as a result of contact with arsenic.
He sold and sent out material labeled with unpublished names, and introduced varieties and formal names. He often used vague terms to describe the locality of specimens.
Taxa
He named and described many molluscan
taxa, including:
* ''
Fluminicola columbiana
The Columbia pebblesnail, scientific name ''Fluminicola columbiana'', is a species of very small freshwater snail that have an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Lithoglyphidae. This species is endemic to the United States
...
'' Hemphill in
Pilsbry
Henry Augustus Pilsbry (7 December 1862 – 26 October 1957) was an American biologist, malacologist and carcinologist, among other areas of study. He was a dominant presence in many fields of invertebrate taxonomy for the better part of a centu ...
, 1899 - a freshwater snail
* ''
Helminthoglypta walkeriana
The banded dune snail or Morro shoulderband, scientific name ''Helminthoglypta walkeriana'', is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial animal, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Helminthoglyptidae.
This species i ...
'' (Hemphill, 1911)
A number of taxa were named after Hemphill, including:
* ''
Hemphillia
''Hemphillia'' is a genus of air-breathing land slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Arionidae, the roundback slugs.
The generic name ''Hemphillia'' is in honor of an American malacologist Henry Hemphill (1830–1914).
...
'' Bland &
Binney Binney is surname of Scottish origin. Notable people with the surname include:
* Amos Binney, American physician, malacologist and father of William G. Binney
* Constance Binney (1896–1989), American stage and film actress and dancer
* David Bin ...
, 1872, a land slug genus
References
*
*
Dall W. H. (1914). "Henry Hemphill". ''Science'' (n.s.) 40(1025): 265-266.
* Dall W. H. (1914). "Henry Hemphill". ''The Nautilus'' 28(5): 58-59.
*
Clench (1944). "Hemphill’s Catalogue of the land and freshwater shells of Utah". ''The Nautilus'' 57(3): 108.
*
Pilsbry H. A. (1944). "Hemphill’s “Catalogue of the land and freshwater shells of Utah”". ''The Nautilus'' 57(4): 144.
*
External links
*
American malacologists
1830 births
1914 deaths
People from Wilmington, Delaware
Conchologists
{{US-zoologist-stub