Wilmatte Porter Cockerell (July 28, 1869 - March 15, 1957) 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.
Theodore had established the New Mexico biological station at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Mesilla a few years earlier, but in 1899 he moved it to Las Vegas, where he used the facilities of the New Mexico Normal University (he was employed there himself the following year). Theodore used the biological station to teach summer classes in applied biology to mostly public school teachers. By 1900 Cockerell was the assistant director of the station with Theodore being the director.[2] Some of the results from work undertaken at the station were jointly published by Theodore and Cockerell in 1899.[3][7][8]
Porter married Theodore Cockerell on June 19, 1900.[4] After her marriage she frequently went on collecting expeditions with Theodore.[9] As well as accompanying her husband on field trips, she collaborated with him on his scientific research and writing.[3] After her marriage Cockerell combined teaching with collecting, and wrote a number of papers on entomology, some as sole author.[10][11] She was much better than her husband at catching insects, on some field trips out-collecting him nine to one. Both Cockerells were badly paid, and it is known Wilmatte sometimes supplemented the family income by selling specimens she obtained while on her field trips to professional full-time insect collectors, who in some cases altered the collection locality on the labels to make the insects appear more exotic and increase their value.[6]
In 1904, Cockerell and her husband moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Cockerell was employed as a biology teacher at the Colorado State Preparatory School.[5] She continued at that high school for much of her teaching career.[1] In February 1904 Science Magazine published a short article Cockerell had sent in about a local plant she mistakenly called Picradenia odorata utilis which a friend had suggested might be a source of rubber, and that her husband had begun to research. The plant had actually just been described in 1903 in the first issue of a new local Colorado scientific magazine as P. floribunda utilis, although in September 1904 her husband moved it to Hymenoxys floribunda utilis. It is now considered a synonym of H. richardsonii var. floribunda.[12][13][14]
Deep red sunflower
In 1910 Cockerell discovered a red sunflower across the road from her home in a field. This sunflower was a mutant that she and Theodore transferred to their garden. Cockerell proceeded cultivate it further, developing the mutation to the point where it could be sold to commercial seed companies.[15] Seed companies such as Peter Henderson & Co, Sutton & Sons, and Burpee marketed the red sunflower seeds throughout the world.[5][1][16] The Cockerells were awarded a medal for their work on these sunflowers at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915.[1]
Field trips
In August 1902, Cockerell took a field trip to Truchas Peak, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, where she collected bees and other insects. This trip resulted in her first scientific report published as sole author, A trip to the Truchas Peaks, New Mexico in the journal The American Naturalist.[17]
In 1906, the Cockerells visited the Florissant Fossil Beds with Sievert Allen Rohwer and W. M. Wheeler, and with them collected specimens and published various articles about the fossil insects found at this site.[4]
During the summers after 1911, the Cockerells undertook various field trips the world over collecting bees, insects, and studying flora and fauna.[5] During these field trips, as well as providing specimens for her husband's research, Cockerell's collecting also provided other entomologists with specimens to research. In 1912 Cockerell and her husband traveled to Guatemala. There she collected numerous insect specimens including many wasps, some of which were species previously unknown to science. These were studied by Rohwer who named two species after her.[18] Also in 1912, while traveling in Guatemala, Cockerell collected three specimens of cacti for National Herbarium at the Smithsonian. These were sent to the botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose. They reclassified their just describedHylocereus minutiflorus as a monotypic species in the genus Wilmattea in her honor, although this change has since been rescinded.[19]
In August 1918, Cockerell and her husband went on a field trip to Peaceful Valley, Colorado, where again she collected specimens of numerous species previously unknown to science.[20]
In 1923, Cockerell and Theodore undertook a trip to Japan. They traveled on the steamer Aleut. While in Japan they had a narrow escape in the Great Kantō earthquake. The Denver Times reported that Cockerell and her husband were believed lost in the catastrophe.[22]
In the later half of 1931 into 1932 the Cockerells went to Africa on what they christened the "Cockerell-Mackie-Ogilvie Expedition". They were accompanied by the naturalist Alice Mackie.[23] The expedition visited many areas of Africa including the Congo where the group collected over 16,000 specimens, especially of bees. Once again numerous specimens of various species were collected by them that up until then had been unknown to science.[24][25]
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Porter, Wilmatte . A New Crayfish from New Mexico. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia v. 52 (1900) 434–435.
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "A new mealy-bug on grass roots". The Canadian Entomologist v. 33, No. 12 (1901), pp.336–337.
Cockerell, W. P.; Cockerell, T. D. A. "A new gooseberry plant-louse". The Canadian Entomologist v. 33, No. 08 (1901), pp.227–228.
Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "The red-tailed bumble-bee's nest". Birds and nature (1903) v. 13, pp.17–18.
Cockerell, W. P. "A trip to the Truchas Peaks, New Mexico". The American Naturalist v. 37, (1903), pp.887 – 891
Cockerell, W. P. "Some Aphids Associated With Ants". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology v. 10, no. 325-326 (1903), pp.216–218.
Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "Note on a rubber-producing plant". Science Magazine. 19 (477) (1904), pp.314–315.
Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "The Ants' Herd." Birds and nature (1904) v. 15, pp.54–55.
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Rohwer, S. A.; Wheeler; W. M.; Cockerell; W. P. "The bees of Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 25.
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "A fossil cicada from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 26.
Cockerell, T. D. A; Cockerell, W. P.; Rohwer, S. A. "The Fossil Mollusca of Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 27.
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "Fossil dragonflies from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1907), v. 23, article 5.
Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P.; Rohwer, S. A. "Fossile Diptera from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1909), v. 26, article 2.
Cockerell, W. P. "Collecting Bees in Southern Texas". Journal of the New York Entomological Society Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1917), pp.187–193
Viola wilmattae C.L. Pollard & Cockerell, 1902. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . 15: 178. - not really a species, but a single plant identified as a hybrid of V. pedatifida with V. nephrophylla in 1913, both species of which had plants growing nearby. Cockerell collected the holotype.[26][27]
Glyphomitrium cockerelleae Britton & Hollick (now known as Plagiopodopsis cockerelliae (Britton & Hollick)). A fossilised moss named in honour of Cockerell in recognition of her devotion to science and her assistance in collecting specimens.[28]
Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866–1948) was an entomologist and systematic biologist who published nearly 4,000 papers, some of them only a few lines long. Cockerell's speciality was the insect order Hymenoptera, an area of study where he described specimens from the United States, the West Indies, Honduras, the Philippines, Africa, and Asia. Cockerell named at least 5,500 species and varieties of bees and almost 150 genera and subgenera, representing over a quarter of all species of bees known during his lifetime. In addition to his extensive studies of bees, he published papers on scale insects, slugs, moths, fish scales, fungi, roses and other flowers, mollusks, and a wide variety of other plants and animals.
The Bombini are a tribe of large bristly apid bees which feed on pollen or nectar. Many species are social, forming nests of up to a few hundred individuals; other species, formerly classified as Psithyrus cuckoo bees, are brood parasites of nest-making species. The tribe contains a single living genus, Bombus, the bumblebees, and some extinct genera such as Calyptapis and Oligobombus. The tribe was described by Pierre André Latreille in 1802.
Palaeovespa is an extinct genus of wasp in the Vespidae subfamily Vespinae. The genus currently contains eight species: five from the Priabonian stage Florissant Formation in Colorado, United States, two from the middle Eocene Baltic amber deposits of Europe, and one species from the late Paleocene of France.
Anthidium scudderi is an extinct species of mason bee in the Megachilidae genus Anthidium. The species is solely known from the late Eocene, Chadronian stage, Florissant Formation deposits in Florissant, Colorado, USA. Anthidium scudderi is one of only four extinct species of mason bees known from the fossil record, and with Anthidium exhumatum, one of two species from the Florissant Formation.
Anthidium exhumatum is an extinct species of mason bee in the Megachilidae genus Anthidium. The species is solely known from the late Eocene, Chadronian stage, Florissant Formation deposits in Florissant, Colorado, USA. Anthidium exhumatum is one of only four extinct species of mason bees known from the fossil record, and with Anthidium scudderi, one of two species from the Florissant Formation.
Paleolepidopterites is a collective genus of fossil moths which can not be placed in any defined family. The included species were formerly placed in the leaf-roller family Tortricidae and are known from fossils found in Russia and the United States. The collective genus contains three species: Paleolepidopterites destructus, Paleolepidopterites florissantanus, and Paleolepidopterites sadilenkoi, formerly placed within the genera Tortrix and Tortricites respectively. The three species were formally redescribed and moved to the new collective genus by Heikkilä et al. (2018).
Hydriomena? protrita is an extinct species of moth in the family Geometridae, and possibly in the modern genus Hydriomena. The species is known from late Eocene, Priabonian stage, lake deposits of the Florissant Formation in Teller County, Colorado, United States. It was first described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1922.
Felimare porterae is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae. It was named by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in honor of his wife Wilmatte Porter Cockerell.
Protostephanus is an extinct genus of crown wasp in the Hymenoptera family Stephanidae known from an Eocene fossil found in the United States of America. The genus contains a single described species, Protostephanus ashmeadi placed in the stephanid subfamily Stephaninae.
Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis was an American amateur plant collector active in New Mexico. She discovered several plant taxa and collected some 500 plant specimens.
Megachile kirbyana is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. It was described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1906, from a specimen collected in Fremantle.
Calyptapis is an extinct bombini genus related to bumblebees with one described species Calyptapis florissantensis. It is known only from the Late Eocene Chadronian age shales of the Florissant Formation in Colorado. The genus and species were described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1906.
Primula rusbyi is a species of Primula. A common name is Rusby's primrose.
Calliopsis puellae is a species of bee in the family Andrenidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
The Porter's miner bee is a species of miner bee in the family Andrenidae. It is found in North America. It was first described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1900 and named after the collector of the type specimen Wilmatte Porter.
Bombus irisanensis is a rare species of bumblebee endemic to Luzon in the Philippines.
Lasioglossum halictoides, also known as the Lasioglossum (Australictus) davide , is a species of bee in the subgenus Australictus of the genus Lasioglossum, in the Halictidae family. It was first described in 1910 by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell as Halictus davidis, from a specimen collected at Kuranda, Queensland.
Osmia cerasi is a species of mason bee found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
Marion Durbin Ellis was an American ichthyologist and entomologist. She is credited with conducting the most comprehensive study to date of the Hemigrammus genus of fish of which she named nineteen taxa. The taxon Corydoras ellisae and Hyphessobrycon ellisae are named for her as are the species Bryconops durbinae and Bryconacidnus ellisi.
1 2 New Mexico Normal University (1900). Bulletin. New Mexico: New Mexico Normal University. p.38.
1 2 3 Creese, Mary R. S.; Creese, Thomas M. (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory?: American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow. p.71. ISBN978-0810832879.
1 2 3 4 5 Weber, William A., ed. (2004). The Valley of the Second Sons: Letters of Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, A Young English Naturalist, Writing to His Sweetheart and Her Brother About His Life in West Cliff, Wet Mountain Valley, Colorado, 1887-1890. Longmont, Colo.: Pilgrims Process. pp.i–xxi. ISBN978-0971060999.
↑ Cockerell, T.D.A. (1918). "The story of the red sunflower". The American Museum Journal. 18: 39–47. Archived from the original on 2020-12-10. Retrieved 2020-11-29– via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
↑ Rose, J. N. "Rose, greenhouse cacti, 1912, 1919 - 1929"(PDF). Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Centre. Smithsonian Institution. Archived(PDF) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
↑ Cockerell, T. D. A. (1919). "The bees of Peaceful Valley, Colorado". Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 4 (27): 298–300.
↑ Cockerell, T D A (March 1937). "Recollections of a Naturalist IV, The Amateur Botanist". BIOS. 8 (1): 12–18.
↑ "Boulder pair in quake zone". Denver Times. September 4, 1923.
↑ Cockerell, T. D. A.; Pilsbury, H. A. (June 1933). "21. African Mollusca, chiefly from the Belgian Congo". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 103 (2): 365–375. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1933.tb01599.x.
↑ Pollard, Charles Louis; Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (6 August 1902). "Four new plants from New Mexico". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 15: 177–179. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
↑ Pilsbry, H. A.; Cockerell, T. D. A. (September 1899). "Another new Ashmunella". The Nautilus. 13: 49–50. Archived from the original on 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2020-11-30– via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
↑ Cockerell, T.D.A. (1902). "Three new species of Chromodoris". The Nautilus. 16 (2): 19–21. Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2020-11-30– via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
↑ King, George B. (1902-02-01). "Some new Coccidae". Entomological News, and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 13: 41–43. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-01– via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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