Marina Zerova

Marina Dmitrievna Zerova (Марина Дмитриевна Зерова; 29 December 1934 – 9 March 2021) was a Ukrainian entomologist. Several insects have been named after her. She became (1980), Professor (1989) and (2003). In 1981 she was awarded the .

Career

In 1957 she graduated from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology in the Faculty of Biology, University of Kiyv. She had specialised in entomology under the guidance of Olexandr Filippovich Kryshtal. Until 1963 she worked at the Zoological Museum of Kiyv University, after which she entered the graduate school of the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1966 she defended her Ph.D. on research into wasps in the groups Eurytomidae and Harmolitinae. In 1979 she submitted a thesis on ''Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea): morpho-biological features, evolution and classification'' for a higher Doctor of Science degree that was awarded the following year.

In 1981, Zerova established a laboratory of entomological taxonomy and ecology in the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. This provided training in identification methods as well as undertaking further research into these groups of parasitic wasps. In 1986 it was made into a separate department which she headed from 2011.

During her career she described about 300 new types of wasps from different parts of the world, mainly of the superfamily Chalcidoidea. Some of these descriptions were in monographs in the series ''Fauna of Ukraine'' and ''Fauna of the USSR'' published in the 1960 and 1970s. She was also the author of ''Insect Determinant of the European Part of the USSR'' (vol. 3, part 2, Leningrad, 1978), ''Insect Determinant of the Far East of Russia'' (vol. 4, part 2, Vladivostok, 1995) and contributed to the ''Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of scientific terminology''.

Among the genera that she described were ''Parabruchophagus'' Zerova, 1992 (Eurytomidae), ''Tetramesella'' Zerova, 1974 (Eurytomidae) and ''Elatomorpha'' Zerova, 1970 (Perilampidae).

Further insects have been named after her including the genus ''Zerovella'' Narendran and Sheela, 1994 and the species ''Aprostocetus zerovae'' Kostjukov and Fursov, 1987, '' Eocencyrtus zerovae'' Simutnik, 2001, '' Entedon zerovae'' Gumovsky, 1995, ''Eurytoma zerovai'' Ozdikmen, 2011, ''Idiomacromerus zerovaae'' Doganlar, 2016, ''Neruandella zerovae'' Trjapitzin and Ruiz Cancino, 2001, ''Tetramesa zerovae'' Narendran, 1994.

Personal life

Her parents were the scientists mycologist Mariya Yakovlevna Zerova and botanist Dmytro Zerov.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zerova, Marina
Soviet entomologists
Ukrainian entomologists
Hymenopterists
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni
20th-century Ukrainian zoologists
Ukrainian women biologists
1934 births
Scientists from Kyiv
2021 deaths
20th-century Ukrainian women scientists
21st-century Ukrainian women scientists
Women entomologists