James George Needham

James George Needham (March 16, 1868 in – July 24, 1957) was an American professor of entomology. He was elected in 1898 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Quotes Chipmunks are most likely to be seen about about old logs and stumps that are red with decay and crumbling, though an old rail fence or a stone wall is often their last resort. It is no accident that we find them oftenest about old stumps; the rusty red of their fur matches the color of the rotten wood, and they escape the notice of their many powerful enemies. Even the conspicuous stripes of black and white fall into place at lights and shadows, and tell no tales of their presence. Outdoor Studies: A Reading Book of Nature Study Eclectic school readings American Book Company 1898 https://books.google.com/books/about/Outdoor_Studies.html?id=Xek3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 14 (90 pages) See how the Lysimachia ciliata loosestrife flower is adapted to Macropis nuda small pollen eating bees. Its stamens stand erect with anthers curving inward. The trough-like pollen cavities of the anthers, opening upward, expose their stores to the insect standing on top. So great is the excess of pollen production over actual needs that the little bee wastefully and unwittingly scatters over the Stigma (botany) stigma is enough for setting the seed. This store of choice food the flower reserves for its proper visitor—chiefly for this little bee. Large bees would have great difficulty in collecting pollen from flowers that hang on such slender stalks. Wingless insects, like ants, which, if gathering pollen, could run only from flower to flower upon the same plant, and which would thus be poor agents in Pollination#Mechanism cross-pollination, are rigidly excluded. Should they be able to run out along the slender flower stalk, and round the fringed border of the Corolla (botany) corolla and get inside, they would still find between themselves and the pollen overhead a barrier of glandular hairs bearing an acrid and offensive secretion which they would choose to avoid contact. General Biology: A Book of Outlines and Practical Studies for the General Student 12th Comstock Publishing Company 1924 https://books.google.com/books?id=fPw8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA10 (546 pages; 1st edition 1910) In the beds of all our larger lakes and streams there exists a vast animal population, dependent, directly of indirectly, upon the rich organic food substances that are bestowed by gravity upon the bottom. Many fishes wander about over the bottom foraging. Many Mollusca mollusks, heavily armored and slow, go pushing their way and leaving tralis through the bottom sand and sediment. And many smaller animals burrow, some by digging their way like moles, as do the Mayfly#Nymph young of mayflies and of gomphine dragonflies; some by "worming" their way through the soil, as do the larvae of Crane fly crane flies and many Oligochaete oligochætes.Among the burrowers none are more abundant or more important than the young of the mayflies. Indeed, there are hardly any aquatic organisms of greater Value (economics) economic value, for they are among the principal herbivores of the waters, and they are all choice food for fishes.How abundant there are in all our large lakes and streams is well attested by the vast hordes of adults that appear in the air at the times of their annual swarming. They issue from the water mainly at night. Burrowing mayflies of our larger lakes and streams Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries XXXVI, 1917–18 https://books.google.com/books?id=mV9ewXzBp3UC&pg=PA269 269–292, followed by several plates (quote from p. 269; offprint Document No. 883, issued July 17, 1920, U.S. Government Printing Office) Minnows and frogs and brown water beetles, scurrying to cover as we approach the shore of a still clear pond, show us that the water has some very lively inhabitants. They swim and dive and paddle in the open until we come, and then they hide from us distrustfully. Theirs is another world than ours. In that world there are strange living creatures in endless variety. ...No one who has lived by clear waters can have failed to see something of their wonderful life: minnows on the shoals; Caddisfly#Development and morphology caddis worms dragging their cumbersome portable houses over the brook bed ; the Mayfly#Nymph young of mayflies clinging to the stones in the riffle, or the adult Mayfly mayflies in their dancing nuptial flight in the air above the stream; and what could be more interesting?To make the knowledge of the whole range of life in ponds and streams a little more easy of access ... is a public service of no small moment. It is all in the interest of a better human environment; better for health, for Outdoor recreation recreation, for instruction, and for aesthetic pleasures. Morgan, Ann Haven Field book of ponds and streams; an introduction to the life of fresh water Foreword by James George Needham 1930 G. P. Putnam's Sons v (text at archive.org; Needham was Ann Haven Morgan’s doctoral advisor.) Quotes about James George Needham Among Professor Needham’s most distinguished research is his work with the aquatic insects—the Plecoptera stoneflies, Caddisfly caddis flies, Damselfly damsel flies and Dragonfly dragonflies. To the damsel flies and dragonflies particularly, he gave much of his time in study of the biology and classification. His outstanding work A Manual of the Dragonflies of North America, revised in 1954 with a former student, Dr. M. J. Westfall, as co-author, was published by the University of California Press only a few years before his death. During his career Professor Needham published more than 250 scientific articles, educational papers, and textbooks. His writing was clear, concise, and interesting to read. Charles E. Palm C. E. Palm, C. O. Berg, and James Chester Bradley J. C. Bradley, Obituary. James George Needham March 16, 1868—July 24, 1957 Cornell eCommons https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6c2a3384-5d7c-4f2f-a9d1-66fbcae05977/content External links Author:James George Needham https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00479.html Guide to the James G. Needham papers, 1884-1957 Cornell University Library Category:Taxa named by James George Needham Category:1868 births Category:1957 deaths Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Entomologists Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:People from Illinois Category:Scientists from the United States