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 arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use.
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, private industries, colleges and universities, and state and federal governments. It serves the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. To facilitate communication among members, the ESA is divided into four sections based on entomological interests, and six branches, based on geographic proximity. The national office is located in Annapolis, Maryland.
Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz was a Baltic German physician, naturalist, and entomologist. He was one of the earliest scientific explorers of the Pacific region, making significant collections of flora and fauna in Alaska, California, and Hawaii.
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawaiʻi and has the world's largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. Besides the comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiian cultural material, the museum's total holding of natural history specimens exceeds 24 million, of which the entomological collection alone represents more than 13.5 million specimens. The Index Herbariorum code assigned to Herbarium Pacificum of this museum is BISH and this abbreviation is used when citing housed herbarium specimens.
John Obadiah Westwood was an English entomologist and archaeologist also noted for his artistic talents. He published several illustrated works on insects and antiquities. He was among the first entomologists with an academic position at Oxford University. He was a natural theologian, staunchly anti-Darwinian, and sometimes adopted a quinarian viewpoint. Although he never travelled widely, he described species from around the world on the basis of specimens, especially of the larger, curious, and colourful species, obtained by naturalists and collectors in England.
The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists.
Charles Duncan Michener was an American entomologist born in Pasadena, California. He was a leading expert on bees, his magnum opus being The Bees of the World published in 2000.
Dilbert Elmo Hardy was an American entomologist who specialized in Diptera systematics.
The Annual Review of Entomology is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes review articles about entomology, the study of insects. First published in 1956 from a collaboration between the Entomological Society of America and Annual Reviews, its longest-serving editors are Thomas E. Mittler (1967–1997) and May Berenbaum (1998–2018). As of 2022, it has a 2021 impact factor of 22.682.
Elwood Curtin Zimmerman was an American entomologist best known for his two multivolume series: Insects of Hawaii published by the University of Hawaiʻi Press and Australian Weevils published by Australia's CSIRO.
Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to interrupt supply lines by damaging crops, or to directly harm enemy combatants and civilian populations. There have been several programs which have attempted to institute this methodology; however, there has been limited application of entomological warfare against military or civilian targets, Japan being the only state known to have verifiably implemented the method against another state, namely the Chinese during World War II. However, EW was used more widely in antiquity, in order to repel sieges or cause economic harm to states. Research into EW was conducted during both World War II and the Cold War by numerous states such as the Soviet Union, United States, Germany and Canada. There have also been suggestions that it could be implemented by non-state actors in a form of bioterrorism. Under the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention of 1972, use of insects to administer agents or toxins for hostile purposes is deemed to be against international law.
The Hawaiian Entomological Society was formed in early 1900 and first convened on January 26, 1905 in the Board Room of the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry in Honolulu, Hawaii. The original officers of the group included the prominent British entomologist, ornithologist, and naturalist Robert Cyril Layton Perkins (President), Alexander Craw, Jacob Kotinsky (Secretary-Treasurer), Otto H. Swezey,, D.L. Van Dine, and G.W. Kirkaldy (Editor). The society publishes the Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society.
Pacific Insects Monographs was a scientific journal published by the Entomology Department, Bishop Museum, between 1961 and 1986.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology was founded in 1946 on the campus of the University of California, Davis. The museum is currently the seventh largest insect collection in North America with more than seven million specimens of terrestrial and freshwater arthropods. At least 90% of these holdings are insects. The collection is worldwide in scope with the Western Hemisphere, Indonesia, and Australasia particularly well represented.
Cornelius Becker Philip (1900–1987) was an American entomologist, noted for assigning comedic names to species he described.
Melville Harrison Hatch (1898–1988) was an American entomologist who specialized in the study of beetles. His long career at the University of Washington was highlighted by the publication of the seminal, five-volume work Beetles of the Pacific Northwest. Hatch is responsible for the identification and naming of 13 species.
Judson Linsley Gressitt was an American entomologist and naturalist who worked in Japan and China. He worked mainly on beetle diversity in Southeast Asia and in applied areas, particularly medical entomology, and was the founder of the journal Pacific Insects and the Wau Ecology Institute in Papua New Guinea. Apart from insects, he collected specimens in numerous taxa and several have been named after him.
Clare Rilloraza Baltazar is a Filipina entomologist. She specializes in systematic entomology and economic entomology. Through her research on Philippine Hymenoptera, Baltazar discovered eight previously undescribed genera and 108 species of parasitic wasps. Her work on Hymenoptera was important to future biological pest control in the Philippines. She was named a National Scientist of the Philippines in 2001.
