Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRS (17 April 1899 – 11 February 1994) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

entomologist who made significant contributions to the field of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

. He established the field in a textbook which was updated in a number of editions. In particular, he studied metamorphosis. His most significant contribution was the discovery that

neurosecretory Neurosecretion is the storage, synthesis and release of hormones from neurons. These neurohormones, produced by neurosecretory cells, are normally secreted from nerve cells in the brain that then circulate into the blood. These neurohormones are si ...

cells in the brain of the South American

kissing bug The members of the Triatominae , a subfamily of the Reduviidae, are also known as conenose bugs, kissing bugs (so-called from their habit of feeding from around the mouths of people), or vampire bugs. Other local names for them used in The Ameri ...

, ''

Rhodnius prolixus ''Rhodnius prolixus'' is the principal triatomine vector of the Chagas parasite due to both its sylvatic and domestic populations in northern South America as well as to its exclusively domestic populations in Central America. It has a wide ran ...

'', secrete a crucial hormone that triggers the

prothoracic gland The prothoracic glands are either of a pair of endocrine glands located in the prothorax of certain insects that regulate molting. They have an ectodermal origin and secrete ecdysteroids, such as ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone 20-Hydroxyecdyson ...

to release

prothoracicotropic hormone Prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) was the first insect hormone to be discovered.The chemical symbol for prothoracicotropic hormone is (C64H102N16O19S2). It was originally described simply as "brain hormone" by early workers such as Stefan Kopeć (1 ...

(PTTH), which regulates the process of metamorphosis. This was the first experimental confirmation of the function of neurosecretory cells. He went on to discover another hormone, called the

juvenile hormone Juvenile hormones (JHs) are a group of acyclic sesquiterpenoids that regulate many aspects of insect physiology. The first discovery of a JH was by Vincent Wigglesworth. JHs regulate development, reproduction, diapause, and polyphenisms.The chem ...

, which prevented the development of adult characteristics in ''R. prolixus'' until the insect had reached the appropriate larval stage. Wigglesworth was able to distort the developmental phases of the insect by controlling levels of this hormone. From these observations, Wigglesworth was able to develop a coherent theory of how an insect's

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

can selectively activate hormones which determine its development and

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

Personal life

Wigglesworth served in the Royal Field Artillery in France in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He received his degree from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and lectured at the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine. The inst ...

, the University of London, and finally at the

. He was named Quick Professor of Biology at the University of Cambridge in 1952, appointed CBE in 1951, and knighted in 1964. Wigglesworth was President of the

Royal Entomological Society The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of Londo ...

from 1963 to 1964 and the Association of Applied Biologists from 1966 to 1967. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1960, the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1971, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1982. He married Mable K Semple in St Albans in 1922. They had four children. The

bacterium Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were amon ...

Wigglesworthia glossinidia ''Wigglesworthia glossinidia'' is a species of gram-negative bacteria which was isolated from the gut of the tsetse fly. ''W. glossinidia'' is a bacterial endosymbiont of the tsetse fly. Because of this relationship, ''Wigglesworthia'' has lost a ...

'', which lives in the gut of the

tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...

, is named for him.

Works

Books

* Insect physiology

References

External links

* Beament, James
Obituary: Professor Sir Vincent Wigglesworth
''The Independent on Sunday'', 1994-02-16
The Papers of Sir Vincent Wigglesworth
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

* 1899 births 1994 deaths Frink Medal winners Royal Medal winners Place of birth missing Place of death missing Knights Bachelor British entomologists Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Royal Field Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War I Quick Professors of Biology Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Academics of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century British zoologists {{UK-entomologist-stub Members of the American Philosophical Society