William Harris Ashmead 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 ...

born on 19 September 1855 at

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He died 17 October 1908 at

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

After his studies in Philadelphia, Ashmead worked for the publisher J. B. Lippincott & Co. Later, he settled 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 ...

where he formed his own publishing house devoted to

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. He also launched the '' Florida Dispatch'', an agricultural weekly magazine which included a headed section devoted to injurious insects. In 1879, he began writing papers for scientific publications and, in 1887, he became a field entomologist working for the Ministry for the Agriculture of Florida. The following year, he became entomologist at the Agricultural Research station of Lake City. In 1889, he worked again for the Ministry for Agriculture. The following year, and for two years, he traveled, in particular to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, to perfect his entomological knowledge. In 1895, he obtained the post of conservation assistant in the Department of Entomology of the U.S. National Museum, a position he occupied until his death. He was mainly a systematic entomologist who worked on many groups of insects, but particularly on

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

and he published approximately 260 articles in various scientific reviews.

Works

Ashmead - Phylogeny of the Hymenoptera - 1896

Selected books: * ''Monograph of the North American Proctotrypidae.'' (Bulletin of the US National Museum, no. 45) Washington: US GPO, 189

* ''Descriptions of New genera and species of Hymenoptera from the Philippine Islands.'' (Proceedings of the US National Museum, no. 29) Washington: US GPO, 190

Selected articles on the Order Hymenoptera: * "Studies on the North American Proctotrupidae, with descriptions of new species from Florida." ''Entomol. Am.'' 3: 73-76, 97-100, 117-119 (1887). * "Descriptions of some new genera and species of Canadian Proctotrupidae." ''Can. Entomol. '' 20: 48-55 (1888). * "Description of a new genus and new species of proctotrypid bred by Mr F.W. Urich from an embiid." ''J. Trin. Fld. Nat. Club'' 2: 264-266 (1895). * "The phylogeny of the Hymenoptera". ''Proc. Ent. soc. Washington'', III: 326-336 (1896) . * "Classification of the pointed-tailed wasps, or the superfamily Proctotrypoidea.-III." ''J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc.'' 11: 86-99 (1903). * "Descriptions of new Hymenoptera from Japan-1." ''J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc.'' 12: 65-84 (1904). *

External links

Frank G. Ashbrook Papers, circa 1915-1965
from the

Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution ...

Encyclopedia of Life The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of non ...

br>
accesses full list of

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

(2519) described by Ashmead (type Ashmead into the search box)
NomenclatorZoologicus
Full list of Ashmead genera via search {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashmead, William Harris 1855 births 1908 deaths Scientists from Philadelphia American entomologists Hymenopterists