The History of a Textbook:

Transcription

1 The History of a Textbook: Introduction to the Study of Insects Charles A. Triplehorn For the December, 2007 annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in San Diego, I was invited by Dr. Martha Lutz to present a paper in the education symposium on the history of the book Introduction to the Study of Insects and its impact on the teaching of entomology. Since the book has undergone seven editions in the more than half a century since its inception, it seems appropriate to describe the development of the book and how it has survived and prospered over the years. When I was in graduate school at The Ohio State University back in the early 1950s, I took a course in Advanced Systematic Entomology taught by a young assistant professor named Donald Joyce Borror. The course consisted of three-hour labs in which we keyed out insects using a book of keys by Brues and Melander published in 1932, supplemented by mimeographed keys prepared by Borror, who was an accomplished writer of keys and was constantly revising and improving them as we students found exceptions and specimens that wouldn t run through the keys. Borror found ways to make the keys work. We were barely aware that Borror and another Ohio State Entomology Professor, Dr. Dwight M. DeLong, were working on a book, ultimately to be entitled Introduction to the Study of Insects. 1954, and was an immediate success, used in classes throughout the country. I was in Graduate School when the book came out and later that year had a twoyear appointment as assistant professor at the University of Delaware. My contribution to that tenebrionid beetle, which was acknowledged in the preface. Borror was well versed in both Latin and Greek and published a useful little book on root words and combining forms. He also Dr. Donald Joyce Borror 76 American Entomologist Summer 2009

2 was the most focused individual I have ever known. His concentration was ledgendary. When interrupted while typing in his and politely answer a question directed to him, but before the enquirer had barely turned to leave, Borror was back pounding the keys in a staccato rhythm. and it was disastrous to drop your pencil as you were taking notes; you could never get back Dr. Dwight M. DeLong on track. Students used to come with him glassy-eyed from trying to keep up. He was a tireless worker, and most of the keys in him. He also made many of the drawings. Many of the students taking Advanced Systematics helped with the drawings and other phases of production, and are mentioned in the preface. Borror frequently visited the insect collection to check vari- was always in a hurry and not especially careful in handling specimens or the drawers in which they were housed. The curator, Professor Josef N. Knull, would cringe every time Borror asked to look at some specimens. He had unusually large hands (he was a catcher on the Otterbein College baseball the drawers rather than removing A specialist on Odonata, Borror published a number of papers on recording animal sounds, including a phonograph record of insect sounds and many recordings of bird songs. The laboratory at The Ohio State University is known as the Borror Bioacoustics Laboratory, and is well known throughout the world. Many of the animal sounds recorded there have been used in movies and television. Dwight M. DeLong was quite the opposite in almost every respect published more than 500 papers on those insects during his career, many of them long after he retired. He had lots of interests travel, photography, Masonic Lodge Shrine functions, and singing in church Dr. Donald Joyce Borror choirs and local musical productions and was a master story- and joke-teller. He also was a very popular teacher, being involved with the introductory and applied courses, as well as Insect Ecology and a memorable class called simply Household Pests, and he won State University. He was a consultant for the A&P grocery company and traveled all over Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky fogging A&P stores. He also conducted a campus pest control operation that employed graduate students, which lasted until they burned a hole in a valuable carpet in the home of the university president while fumigating the premises. DeLong made numerous collecting trips all over the United States, Mexico, and South America, and is the only person I know who has collected from Point Barrow, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. A never-to-be-forgotten experience was a month I spent with him in Panama, collecting night and day. A number of new species of insects have been described from those we picked up in Darien, Barro Colorado Island, and elsewhere. I edition ever saw the light of day not that the two co- authors were feuding, but Borror had a strict regimen that he followed, and DeLong had so many other interests that he resented it when Borror cracked the whip. The book was frequently referred to by students as Boring and Too Long. Well, a muchimproved second edition was published in 1963, and a third in By this time, I had joined the faculty at Ohio State and made some minor contributions to the early editions. I was totally unprepared when Borror and DeLong asked me to be a third author on the fourth edition. I was, of course, ber of the team and worked long and hard to justify my involvement. My major responsibilities were the Coleoptera chapters, a section on insect control, getting permission to use illustrations and selecting new ones, and general proofreading. Borror was a hard taskmaster. He one subject or another, and would stand there until I had written it. It got worse as the deadline approached, and I came to dread having him appear in my doorway. It is interesting that the number of orders (26) remained the same American Entomologist Volume 55, Number 2 77

3 Left to right, D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, D. M. DeLong, circa Borror, DeLong, and Triplehorn. Needless to say, none of us got much research or publishing done in the years that the next edition was Royalties were not that great I used to say that I could have made more per hour sacking groceries or pumping gas. For the sixth edition, we added Norman F. Johnson, a Hymenoptera specialist, who proved to be a valuable addition to our group. We lost DeLong in 1985, when he passed away at the age of 92. Borror died just before the sixth edition was published. The most notable changes in this edition were the consolidation of the two lice orders, Anoplura and Mallophaga, into the Phthiraptira, the addition of a chapter on behavior, and improvements to the illustrations. For the seventh edition, the title was changed to Borror and DeLong s Introduction to the Study of Insects. For that edition, we removed the accent marks that indicated how words (especially more sweeping changes than in any of the previous editions, such as combining the orders Hemiptera and Homoptera. Johnson wrote the chapters on Morphology, Physiology, Hymenoptera, and Diptera. The other orders were my responsibility. as ours is attempting to keep everybody happy and tive approach is necessary in our treatment we cannot jump on the bandwagon of every controversial notion that comes down the pike. Should Hemiptera and Homoptera be retained as separate orders? How about Mallophaga and Anoplura? Should bruchids be a separate family or a subfamily of Chrysomelidae? Are the scolytids and platypodids families or subfamilies of weevils? In my own pet group, Tenebrionidae, the archeocrypticids and zopherids were removed and are now recognized as distinct families, while the alleculids and lagriids are now included in the Tenebrionidae. The beetle family Scarabaeidae has been split into ten families, and the bug family Lygaeidae has also been divided into ten families. ists happy and not be too confusing to students and non-entomologists attempting to use our book is a challenge. My method has been to select an individual whose opinions I respect and who has stature and credibility in a group of insects, and go with that individual s that some folks will be upset and not agree. Good examples of the input of my colleagues in the chapters for which I was responsible are Robert E. Lewis on Siphonaptera, Ronald W. Hodges on Lepidoptera, E. S. Ross on Embiidina, Michael A. Ivie on Coleoptera, and Edward Mockford on Psocoptera. The book has been translated into Arabic (1966, based on the second edition), Portuguese (1969, based on the C. A. Triplehorn (left), N. F. Johnson, circa American Entomologist Summer 2009

4 second edition), and Indonesian (1989, based on the sixth edtion), and there has been some talk of translation into other languages. An shock in this venture came from Dr. Kenneth Christianson, my guru on Collembola. I thought there would surely be few changes in such a minor order since the last edition. Imagine my surprise when he informed me that what was formerly ten families is now 33! I am almost afraid to open more cans of worms when I delve into the other orders. In the seventh edition, there were many changes in the Coleop- to be considered and either accepted or rejected. Fortunately, the two-volume classic American Beetles had just been published and not). Bruchidae (pea and bean weevils) did become a subfamily (Bruchinae) of the family Chrysomelidae, scolytids and platypodids were now curculionids, and so on. We used the keys prepared by American Beetles provided by Robert Anderson, and we followed Shawn Clark on the Chrysomelidae. One of the most traumatic changes (to me and many others) was combining Hemiptera and Homoptera. This has been controversial for a long time. We had lots of help on this chapter: James Slater graciously provided me with everything I needed to handle the Heteroptera (true bugs), including splitting the former family Lygaeidae into ten families. There was some resistance on the part of Michael Koszterab, who felt that the scale insects should be placed in a separate order, but graciously practically rewrote that section for me. Tom Moore updated the portion on cicadas, Paul Freytag made some addi- and Manya Stoetzel helped me was pulling all of this information together, which was my role. I followed almost all of the suggestions by Ronald Hodges on the Lepidoptera chapter. Those insects just don t lend themselves well to a dichotomous key. So student is faced with removing and clearing the wings, he loses interest, besides having to mutilate the specimen he wishes to identify. Kumar Krishna provided a lot of information for the Isoptera chapter. Interestingly, there is some sentiment for combining the orders Isoptera and Blattaria, largely because the genus Cryptocerca (now considered a cockroach) has cellulose-digesting protozoa, which are characteristic of termites. I feel we must think long and hard before accepting this move. Tom Walker and David Nickle helped immeasurably with the Orthoptera chapter. All I had to do was plug in the information they sent. an improvement over previous editions and the keys seem easier to follow. There are several invasive species I would have totally missed without my colleagues help. A valuable addition to the seventh edition is a chapter on behavior and ecology written by Woodbridge Foster. This chapter has elicited a number of favorable responses by users of the book. Over the years in various additions, we have added and omitted such things as applied aspects of entomology. Now the secret is out. Triplehorn is not really an author he is a compiler or an editor. I readily accept that criticism. With the volume of literature on systematic entomology appearing in numerous journals every year, it is impossible to keep up with all of the changes and to evaluate and accept or reject the changes proposed. My colleagues have been very generous with their time and expertise, and I sincerely appreciate their help. The book is known all over the world and the names Borror and DeLong (and perhaps Triplehorn and Johnson) have become household names in many countries. An amusing illustration of this: in 1967 (before I became one of the authors), Dr. DeLong and I were in Panama City, Panama, looking up at the lights atop Ancon Hill, and speculating about the hordes of insects that must be attracted to them. A guard post at the road leading up to Ancon Hill was manned by a sergeant, who told us there was no way we would be allowed enquired about what was going on. The sergeant replied, These men want to go up on Ancon Hill at night to collect insects and I told them that that was impossible. We introduced ourselves to the major, who exclaimed, Dr. De- honored if you would autograph it for me. DeLong modestly complied, and the major said, You re right, sergeant. We can t let them drive up the one-way road to the top of Ancon Hill we will send a car to take them up. And they did. No doubt the most useful parts of our book are the keys. A key, of course, is supposed to enable anyone who has never seen an object or organism to work through a series of mutually exclusive choices American Entomologist Volume 55, Number 2 79

5 are many pitfalls along the way. Each choice you face is important, and you must be certain of each one or you can become hopelessly lost. This is especially important in long keys, such as those for major orders such as Coleoptera, with 196 couplets, or Hymenoptera, with 120. In Biology, there are so many exceptions to the rules that preparing a key that will work 100% of the time is almost impossible. you are doing pretty well. One helpful feature of our keys, which I believe was unique, was the addition of a pointer to the previous couplet, indicating the one from which you came. This enables the key to work backwards. A good way to become familiar with a key and to learn where the pitfalls are is to select a specimen from a known family and work the key backwards. Thus, you can beware of places where you might go wrong. Another little feature in our keys is the occasional use of a triplicate or quadruplicate. These are helpful, but one must be certain that the three or four choices are truly mutually exclusive. These can considerably shorten a key. In the last edition, a nice feature was added: the alternative in each couplet is shaded so that it is easier to keep track of where you are. This was something we never thought of, but was added by the publishers. Borror himself added another correct answer no matter which choice you make. Finally, in many instances, a family may key out in several places. There are a number of factors that force this upon the key writer: sexual dimorphism, polymorphism, etc. A friend once made the written. However, I believe the main purpose of a key is to facilitate prepare. To keep our book up to date, and to make our keys easier to use and ensure the correct answer, is a never-ending proposition. Many of the changes in our keys are made in response from teachers, students, and others. The comments and suggestions from users of our keys have enabled us to improve them. For this reason, every key should be turned over to someone who is totally unfamiliar with the group under consideration. Being associated with such a classic book and working with such distinguished coauthors as Borror, DeLong, and Johnson has been a crowning achievement of my career. It was recently brought home to me just how long this adventure has gone on when I was invited to a luncheon for emeritus entomology professors by our new dean, Herbers exclaimed, I m glad Dr. Triplehorn could make it; I grew up with his book. That comment ranks right along with when I was elected ESA president and a man at one of the meetings said, What a nice thing to happen to you in the twilight of your career! Charles A. Triplehorn is Emeritus Professor of Entomology and curator at The Ohio State University. His specialty is the beetle family Tenebrionidae. He was president of ESA in American Entomologist Summer 2009