Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell
Born	(1866-08-22)22 August 1866 Norwood, Greater London
Died	26 January 1948(1948-01-26) (aged 81)[1] San Diego, California
Resting place	Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado
Nationality	English
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Middlesex Hospital Medical School
Spouse(s)	Annie Fenn Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter Cockerell
Scientific career
Fields	Zoology, botany
Institutions	New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, New Mexico Normal University, University of Colorado, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Notable students	Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis
Author abbrev. (botany)	Cockerell
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Ckll.[2]

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866–1948) was an American zoologist, born at Norwood, England, and brother of Sydney Cockerell. He was educated at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and then studied botany in the field in Colorado in 1887–90. Subsequently, he became a taxonomist and published numerous papers on the Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Mollusca and plants, as well as publications on paleontology and evolution.

Personal life[]

Cockerell with his wife Wilmatte Porter Cockerell, 1935

Cockerell was born in Norwood, Greater London and died in San Diego, California.

He married Annie Penn in 1891 (she died in 1893) and Wilmatte Porter in 1900. In 1901, he named the ultramarine blue chromodorid Mexichromis porterae (now Felimare porterae) in her honor. After their marriage in 1900, they frequently went on collecting expeditions together and assembled a large private library of natural history films, which they showed to schoolchildren and public audiences to promote the cause of environmental conservation.

After his death he was buried in Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado.^[3]

Professional life[]

Between 1891 and 1901, Cockerell was curator of the public museum of Kingston, Jamaica, professor of entomology of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1900–03 he was instructor in biology at the New Mexico Normal School. While there he taught and mentored Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis.^[4] In 1903–04 Cockerell was the curator of the ; and in 1904 he became lecturer on entomology and in 1906 professor of systematic zoology, at the University of Colorado, where he worked with Junius Henderson in establishing the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. During World War II he operated the Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California.^[5][6]

Publications[]

Cockerell was author of more than 2,200 articles in scientific publications, especially on the Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, and Mollusca, and on paleontology and various phases of evolution, plus some 1700 additional authored works, including treatises on social reform and education. He was one of the most prolific taxonomists in history, publishing descriptions of over 9,000 species and genera of insects alone, some 6,400 of which were bees, and some 1,000 mollusks, arachnids, fungi, mammals, fish and plants.^[7] This includes descriptions of numerous fossil taxa, such as the landmark study, Some Fossil Insects from Florissant, Colorado (1913). The standard author abbreviation Cockerell is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[8] In an obituary note that appeared in the Nature of Feb.14, 1948, R.B. Benson had observed that Cockerell "acquired the habit of hurrying his ideas and observations into print as soon as he could. The habit persisted throughout his long life, so that almost all his work appeared in the form of short papers."

Plants[]

Cockerell and Wilmatte traveled to the United Kingdom in 1921. While there, they visited the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh where, according to himself in 1937, Isaac Bayley Balfour proved that the plant Primula ellisiae was a distinct species from P. rusbyi. He had named this taxon in honor of its discoverer, one of his students, Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis.^[9][10] However, at present this taxon is regarded as a synonym of P. rusbyi.^[11]

Honors[]

A dorm in the Engineering Quad at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the moth Givira theodori are named in his honor.

Taxa[]

Taxa named by Cockerell include:

Name	Year	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Anthidium exhumatum	1906	Florissant Formation	United States	A mason bee
Anthidium scudderi	1906	Florissant Formation	United States	A mason bee
Archimyrmex rostratus	1923	Green River Formation	United States	A myrmeciine ant
Elisolimax	1893		Extant	a land slug genus
Dinopanorpa megarche	1924		Russia	A scorpion fly
Hydriomena? protrita	1922	Florissant Formation	United States	A butterfly	Hydriomena? protrita
Protostephanus ashmeadi	1906	Florissant Formation	A crown wasp
Palaeovespa	1906	Baltic amber & Florissant Formation, Colorado	Europe United States	An Eocene wasp genus	Palaeovespa florissantia
Tortrix? destructus	1917	Florissant Formation	United States	A moth, moved to Paleolepidopterites destructus	Paleolepidopterites destructus
Tortrix? florissantanus	1907	Florissant Formation	United States	A moth, moved to Paleolepidopterites florissantanus	Paleolepidopterites florissantanus
Trigona corvina	1913		Central America & South America	A stingless bee

References[]

External links[]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell.

• Biography of Cockerell
• GAP Biography
• Works by T. D. A. Cockerell at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell at Internet Archive
• Works by or about T. D. A. Cockerell at Internet Archive
• Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell at Find a Grave