Stories from my life.
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Lou Roth was the foremost authority on cockroaches in the world. He was best known for his enormous book, The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches. Most of his life he worked in a lab for the US government, but I knew him after his retirement when he was a Harvard Museum Associate and worked daily in an office there. We talked a lot because he was very approachable and because I study Evaniidae, which are parasites of cockroach egg cases. | Lou Roth was the foremost authority on cockroaches in the world. He was best known for his enormous book, The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches. Most of his life he worked in a lab for the US government, but I knew him after his retirement when he was a Harvard Museum Associate and worked daily in an office there. We talked a lot because he was very approachable and because I study Evaniidae, which are parasites of cockroach egg cases. | ||
| − | One year, he had a ton of species to name in a paper, so he named one after each person he knew at the museum, including me. Now, all those species looked alike, so the type specimens were based on microscope slides of genitalia. So I teased him that when he died, they were going to make a slide of his genitalia. | + | One year, he had a ton of species to name in a paper, so he named one after each person he knew at the museum, including me. Now, all those species looked alike, so the type specimens were based on microscope slides of genitalia. Somewhere in the literature, there is a pornographic drawing of cockroach sexy bits with my name attached. So I teased him that when he died, they were going to make a slide of his genitalia. |
Another day, he told me he had published a genus named Eowilsonia, named after E. O. Wilson. Then he complained that while he had named genera after several people, nobody had yet named a genus after him. I don't remember if I promised him I would, but I named Rothevania for him shortly after his death. Quite appropriate: after all, they both make their living from cockroaches. | Another day, he told me he had published a genus named Eowilsonia, named after E. O. Wilson. Then he complained that while he had named genera after several people, nobody had yet named a genus after him. I don't remember if I promised him I would, but I named Rothevania for him shortly after his death. Quite appropriate: after all, they both make their living from cockroaches. | ||
