Kenneth Blair

Kenneth Gloyne Blair (22 December 1882 – 11 December 1952) was a British entomologist, specialising in the order Coleoptera. He was elected president of the Royal Entomological Society for a two-year term in 1940–1941.

Quotes

• With few exceptions, luminous insects throughout the world belong, broadly speaking, to one family of Beetles, the Lampyridae, or to give them their popular name, the Fireflies and Glow-worms. The most important exception to this statement is afforded by the Fireflies of the West Indies and Central America, locally known as " Cucujos," which, though still Beetles, belong to quite a different family, the Elateridae or Skipjacks.
  ... Though usually present to a greater or lesser degree in both sexes, the luminous property is generally developed much more highly in one sex than in the other. When it is the male beetle that possesses it in the greater degree, the light is shown when the insect is on the wing, and is generally of an intermittent or flashing character, and gives to the insects their popular name of Fireflies.
  On the other hand, when the power of luminosity is the more highly developed in the female beetle, the character is usually associated with a more or less complete absence of wings, and the insect becomes merely a crawling, unpleasant-looking, worm-like creature, generally known in fact as a Glow-worm, which nobody who is not an entomologist would ever dream of calling a Beetle. The males of these insects are winged, in form closely resembling the Fireflies, and are totally unlike their spouses. The consequence of this utter dissimilarity between the two sexes of one species is, that it is not easy to co-relate them properly in our collections.
  • (1915). "Fireflies and glow-worms and their light". The Journal of the Natural History Society of Siam 1: 188–195. (quote from pp. 188–189)

Quotes about Kenneth G. Blair

• ... After a brief period spent in other government offices, he transferred in 1910 to the Natural History Museum, being appointed assistant in the Department of Zoology, which then included entomology.
  Under Dr. C. J. Gahan, Blair was put in charge of a large section of the Coleoptera comprising principally the Heteromera, which had perforce been largely neglected for many years. His systematic critical revision of genera and species, the description of new ones, the elucidation of the work of the early authors, a catalogue of the Pythidae and Pyrochroidae, and so on. Concurrently he published many papers of faunistic interest, based largely on collections made by various expeditions.
  • Norman Denbigh Riley, (January 24, 1953)"Obituary. Dr. K. G. Blair". 171 (4343): 152–153. DOI:10.1038/171152a0. (quote from p. 152)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Kenneth Blair on Wikipedia