Frank M. Carpenter

Frank M. Carpenter
Born(1902-09-06)September 6, 1902[1]
Boston[1]
DiedJanuary 18, 1994(1994-01-18) (aged 91)[1]
Lexington, Massachusetts[1]
Alma materHarvard University[1]
AwardsPaleontological Society Medal (1975)
Scientific career
ThesisThe fossil ants of North America (1929)
Doctoral advisorWilliam Morton Wheeler[1]
Doctoral studentsE. O. Wilson

Frank Morton Carpenter (September 6, 1902 – January 18, 1994) was an American entomologist and paleontologist.[2] He received his PhD from Harvard University, and was curator of fossil insects at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology for 60 years. He studied the Permian fossil insects of Elmo, Kansas, and compared the North American fossil insect fauna with Paleozoic taxa known from elsewhere in the world. A careful and methodical worker, he used venation and mouthparts to determine the relationships of fossil taxa, and was author of the Treatise volume on Insects. He reduced the number of extinct insect orders then described from about fifty to nine.

Entomologists David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel consider him "the most influential paleoentomologist of his generation" (Grimaldi and Engel 2005 p. 143). He has been memorialized frequently with patronyms, including the hanging fly Bittacus carpenteri Cheng, 1957,[3] the fossil parasitic wasp Carpenteriana tumida Yoshimoto, 1975,[4] the fossil snakefly Fibla carpenteri Engel, 1995,[5] the fossil ant Protrechina carpenteri Wilson, 1985,[6] and the caddisfly Rhyacophila carpenteri Milne, 1936.[7] He also taught at the Harvard Extension School.[8]

Carpenter was elected in 1938 a fellow of the Entomological Society of America.[9]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Furth, D. G. (1994). "Frank Morton Carpenter (1902–1994): Academic Biography and List of Publications". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 101 (1–2): 127–144. doi:10.1155/1994/46462.
  2. ^ ."Frank Carpenter, 91, Expert on Fossil Insects". The New York Times. 20 January 1994. p. B 8. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  3. ^ F. Y. Cheng. 1957. Revision of the Chinese Mecoptera. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 116(1): 1-118; 113: "I take the liberty to name the species in honor of Professor F. M. Carpenter, who has allowed me to describe the species."
  4. ^ Carl M. Yoshimoto. 1975. Cretaceous Chalcidoid Fossils from Canadian Amber. Canadian Entomologist 107(5): 499-528; 510: "Named after the American palaeoentomologist Frank Carpenter (1902-1994), who worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts" per: John T. Huber. 2005. The gender and derivation of genus-group names in Mymaridae and Mymarommatidae (Hymenoptera). Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem. 69: 167-183; p. 169.
  5. ^ M. S. Engel. 1995. A new fossil snake-fly species from Baltic amber (Raphidioptera: Inocelliidae). Psyche 102: 187-193. "This species is named in honor of the late Dr. Frank M. Carpenter (1902-1994), world's authority on fossil insects. Dr. Carpenter had a particular interest in the Raphidioptera (both recent and fossil) and it is only fitting that one should bear his name."
  6. ^ Edward O. Wilson. 1985. Ants from the Cretaceous and Eocene amber of North America. Psyche 92: 205-216. "The species is named for Frank M. Carpenter in recognition of his pioneering work on the fossil ants of North America."
  7. ^ L. J. Milne. 1936. Studies in North American Trichoptera. Part 3. Cambridge, Mass.: privately published. 128 pages.
  8. ^ Shinagel, Michael (2010), The Gates Unbarred: A History of University Extension at Harvard, 1910–2009, Harvard University Press, p. 52, ISBN 978-0674051355
  9. ^ "List of ESA Fellows". Entomological Society of America. 2 January 2024.