John William Evans (16 January 1906 – 1990) was a British entomologist who worked as an entomology in Australia and served as director of the Australian Museum from 1954 to 1966. He was a specialist on the

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

, especially the

leafhoppers A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and a ...

, and took an interest in aspects of biogeography and evolution. Evans was born in India and went to

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

to study geology, botany and zoology, graduating in 1926. He then moved to Australia to study sharks and then joined the newly created CSIR (now called the CSIRO). He studied '' Cactoblastus'' on prickly pear. He then worked at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand. He married Faith, the second daughter of the director, entomologist R.J. Tillyard. He moved to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, Farnham to study ''

Trichogramma ''Trichogramma'' is a genus of minute polyphagous wasps that are endoparasitoids of insect eggs. ''Trichogramma'' is one of around 80 genera from the family Trichogrammatidae, with over 200 species worldwide.Consoli FL, Parra JRP, Zucchi RA (2010 ...

'' parasites. He returned to Australia in 1929 and worked at CSIRO in Canberra and in 1935 he joined the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture. In 1945 he moved back to London to the Imperial Institute of Entomology and later served in the ministry of agriculture and fisheries. He became director of the Australian Museum in Sydney in 1954 and served there until 1966. He was among the first to describe in detail the anatomy of moss bugs in the family Peloridiidae. He obtained specimens from Tasmania which were discovered by his wife and he described them as a new species ''Hemiodoecus fidelis'' (after the Latin for "faith").

References

External links

Australian Museum

Audio recording
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, John William 1906 births 1990 deaths Australian entomologists