Samuel Hubbard Scudder
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entomologist and palaeontologist.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Scudder may be most widely known for his essay on the importance of first-hand, careful observation in the natural sciences. The treatise on inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning, also known as induction or inductive logic, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions that are abstractions of observations. It is commonly construed as a form of reasoning that makes generalizations based on individual instances...
, entitled "The Student, the Fish
Haemulidae
The grunts are a family, Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. They are numerous and widespread, with about 150 species in 19 genera, found in tropical fresh, brackish and salt waters around the world...
, and Agassiz", reflects his initial experience under the tutelage of Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
He graduated at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
in 1857 and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1862, was a leading figure in American entomology from 1858, and the first North American insect palaeontologist. He also undertook systematic work with Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
(almost exclusively butterflies), Orthoptera
Orthoptera
Orthoptera is an order of insects with paurometabolous or incomplete metamorphosis, including the grasshoppers, crickets and locusts.Many insects in this order produce sound by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps...
, Mantodea and Blattodea
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
and fossil arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
s, including the exquisitely preserved butterfly Prodryas persephone
Prodryas
Prodryas persephone is an extinct butterfly, known from a single specimen from Eocene rocks. It was the first fossil butterfly to be found in North America, and is unusually well preserved...
.
A student of Mark Hopkins
Mark Hopkins
Mark Hopkins was one of four principal investors who formed the Central Pacific Railroad along with Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Collis Huntington in 1861.-Early years:...
at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
and Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Scudder was a prolific writer, publishing 791 papers between 1858–1902, on insect biogeography
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
and paleobiogeography, insect behavior ontogeny
Ontogeny
Ontogeny is the origin and the development of an organism – for example: from the fertilized egg to mature form. It covers in essence, the study of an organism's lifespan...
and phylogeny, insect songs, trace fossils, evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, insect biology and economic entomology
Economic entomology
Economic entomology is a field of entomology, which involves the study of insects that are of benefit or those that cause harm to humans, domestic animals, and crops. Insects that cause losses are termed as pests. Some species can cause indirect damage by spreading diseases and these are termed as...
.
He also wrote on ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, general geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, and geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
.
His masterwork of fossil terrestrial arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
research was the two-volume set Fossil Insects of North America: The Pre-tertiary Insects (1890) (a collection of his previous papers on Paleozoic
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...
and Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
insects) and The Tertiary Insects of North America (1890)
He also published comprehensive reviews of the then-known fossil cockroaches of the world (1879), Carboniferous cockroaches of the United States (1890, 1895), and fossil terrestrial arthropods of the world (1886, 1891).
Scudder's Nomenclator Zoologicus (1882–1884) was a seminal and comprehensive list of all generic and family names (Zoology including insects).
Scudder’s other contributions include: Curator, Librarian, Custodian, and President of the Boston Society of Natural History
Boston Society of Natural History
The Boston Society of Natural History in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the society occupied several successive locations in Boston's Financial...
(1859–1870, 1880–1887); co-founder of the Cambridge Entomological Club and its journal Psyche
Psyche (entomological journal)
Psyche is a scientific journal of entomology which was established in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club as a "journal for the publication of biological contributions upon Arthropoda from any competent person"....
(1874); General Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
(1875) (Vice-President (1894).); First editor of Science (1883–1885); United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
Paleontologist (1886–1892); et al.
Scudder died in Boston on May 17, 1911.
Works
- The Student, the FishHaemulidaeThe grunts are a family, Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. They are numerous and widespread, with about 150 species in 19 genera, found in tropical fresh, brackish and salt waters around the world...
, and Agassiz, American Poems (3rd ed.; Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879): pp. 450–54 - Butterflies: Their Structure, Changes, and Life Histories (1881)
- Nomenclator zoologicus : an alphabetical list of all generic names that have been employed by naturalists for recent and fossil animals from the earliest times to the close of the year 1879 Bulletin of the United States national museum Washington Government printing office, 1882. XIX-340 p. (1882). On line at Gallica
- Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada (1889)
- The Fossil Insects of North America (two volumes, 1890)
- Index to the Known Fossil Insects of the World (1891)
- Tertiary Rhynchophorous Coleoptera of the United States (1893)
- The Life of a Butterfly (1893)
- Frail Children of the Air: Excursions into the World of Butterflies (1895)
- Revision of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli (1897)
- Everyday Butterflies (1899)
- Catalogue of the Described Orthoptera of the United States and Canada (1900)
- Adephagous and Clavicorn Coleoptera from the Tertiary Deposits at Florissant, Colorado (1900)
- Index to North American Orthoptera (1901)