He obtained an A.B. degree in 1908 in Liberal Arts from Bowdoin College with a major in Greek and Latin. In 1910 he received an A.M. degree in Biology from Harvard University. From 1909-1914, Timberlake was employed by the U.S. Department of AgricultureBureau of Entomology, as “Agent and Expert” conducting research in biological control of pest insects. From 1914-1924 he was Associate Entomologist at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Experiment Station in Honolulu, where his research dealt primarily with biological control using parasites and predators. In 1924 he was appointed Associate Entomologist in the Department of Biological Control at the Citrus Experiment Station of the University of California, Riverside, where he served until retirement in 1950. He continued his regular work schedule afterward, but his eyesight slowly failed in later years, and in 1980, at age 97 years, it reached the point where he could no longer continue his work.
The appointment of Timberlake in the Department of Biological Control in 1924 was motivated by his extensive knowledge of the taxonomy of parasitic Hymenoptera and of predaceous ladybird beetles, groups of importance in biological control of pest insects. However, by the late 1920s and thereafter, he focused almost entirely upon the taxonomy of native bees, especially the genus Perdita. There are over 800 species of Perdita, most described by Timberlake, but also by T.D.A. Cockerell. They are almost all specialist pollinators (oligoleges) of many species of plants, especially in the Sonoran desert, where Timberlake carried out extensive collecting for decades.
He described and named about 800 species of bees in total over his career, and several other species in other insect groups. He published over 100 scientific papers, mostly on bees, in addition to 8 volumes on the genus Perdita alone. His colleagues and former students throughout the world have described over 50 new species of insects, named timberlakei as patronyms in his honor. His insect collection contained about 500,000 specimens of which about 150,000 were Hymenoptera, including what was once the largest bee collection in North America, and this served as the foundation for the collection now housed in the University of California's Entomology Research Museum, containing some 4 million total specimens.
He married his wife, Edith Timberlake, in 1917 in Honolulu, and they had three children. Edith was the sister of Hannah Milhous Nixon and an aunt of former President Richard M. Nixon, whose law school career she helped finance. She and the elderly scientist attended Nixon's Presidential inauguration at his invitation, and she died a few years later, in 1972.
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.
Alexander Henry Haliday was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Thysanoptera, but worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.
Bryan Patrick Beirne was an Irish entomologist who emigrated to Canada in 1949. He specialized in pest management.
Trichogramma is a genus of minute polyphagous wasps that are endoparasitoids of insect eggs. Trichogramma is one of around 80 genera from the family Trichogrammatidae, with over 200 species worldwide.
The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family of chalcidoid wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1,400 species.
The UCR Entomology Research Museum is the insect collection of the Department of Entomology of the University of California, Riverside. It contains approximately 4 million total insect specimens, over 3 million of which are pinned, roughly 400,000 mounted on slides, the remainder preserved in ethanol. Of the ~4 million curated holdings, approximately 75% of are identified to genus level or better. An estimated 25% of the entire collection are Hymenoptera, 21% are Coleoptera, 18% Diptera, and 18% Lepidoptera.
The University of California Citrus Experiment Station is the founding unit of the University of California, Riverside campus in Riverside, California, United States. The station contributed greatly to the cultivation of the orange and the overall agriculture industry in California. Established February 14, 1907, the station celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007.
Albert Koebele was an economic entomologist and a pioneer in the use of biological controls to manage insect pests.
Xylocopa sonorina, the valley carpenter bee or Hawaiian carpenter bee, is a species of carpenter bee found from western Texas to northern California, and the eastern Pacific islands. Females are black while males are golden-brown with green eyes.
Encarsia is a large genus of minute parasitic wasps of the family Aphelinidae. The genus is very diverse with currently about 400 described species and worldwide distribution. The number of existing species is expected to be several times higher because many species are still undescribed. Encarsia is a very complex genus, with specimens showing both inter- and intra-specific variations, making morphological classification difficult.
Charles Henry Tyler Townsend was an American entomologist specializing in the study of tachinids (Tachinidae), a large and diverse family of flies (Diptera) with larvae that are parasitoids of other insects. He was perhaps the most prolific publisher of new tachinids, naming and describing some 3000 species and genera. He made important contributions to the biological control of insect pests and he was the first to identify the insect vector of a debilitating disease in Peru. Townsend was also a controversial figure and criticism of his approach to insect taxonomy continues to this day.
Richard Mitchell Bohart was an American entomologist, university professor, and a member of the University of California, Davis Department of Entomology for more than 50 years. He taught courses in general entomology, insect systematics, and summer field courses in insect identification. From 1963 to 1967 he served as chair of the Department of Entomology for the University of California at Davis.
Harry Scott Smith, an entomologist and professor at University of California, Riverside (UCR), was a pioneer in the field of biological pest control.
Wilmatte Porter Cockerell was an American entomologist and high school biology teacher who discovered and collected a large number of insect specimens and other organisms. She participated in numerous research and collecting field trips including the Cockerell-Mackie-Ogilvie expedition. She wrote several scientific articles in her own right, co-authored more with her husband, Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, and assisted him with his prolific scientific output. She discovered and cultivated red sunflowers, eventually selling the seeds to commercial seed companies. Her husband and her entomological colleagues named a number of taxa in her honor.
Jacobus van der Vecht, nicknamed Jaap, was a Dutch entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera, especially those of the East Indies and New Guinea.
Perdita scutellaris is a bee species from California in the United States. It is only found in sand dune habitats or other sandy areas. It is oligolectic, collecting pollen only from plants in the genus Tiquilia.
David Rosen was an Israeli entomologist known for his work on pest control. He was also a specialist on the taxonomy of the Chalcidoidea. He served as Vigevani Professor of Agriculture and Professor of Entomology at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Paul Hevener DeBach was an American entomologist who was a specialist on biological control. He wrote the influential book Biological Control by Natural Enemies first published in 1974 which went through several editions and helped in the development of the field of biological control.
William Dwight Pierce was an American entomologist.
George Salt was an English entomologist and ecologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1956.
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