AMERICAN
ENTOMOLOGIST
Editor
GeneR.Kritsky
Jessee Smith
Editorial Assistant
Happy Birthday; Darwin
Contributing Editors
e recently
celebrated
the bicentennial of the birth
of Charles Darwin
through web sites,
podcasts, television
programs, books, and
numerous newspaper
articles, to the extent that any visitor to a
newsstand would see Darwin's face gazing
back at them. Although Darwin never wrote a
book dedicated to the study of insects, he did
use insects as evidence for many of his theories. In fact, one of his best-known works,
The Descent of Man, has several chapters on
insectan examples of sexual selection.
Darwin's connection with ESAinvolves
his correspondence with entomologists who
later made an impact on our society. John
Henry Comstock wrote to Darwin on 4 June
1880 and provided him with a summary of
items from his Report upon Cotton Insects
that he thought might prove interesting. Of
course, Benjamin D.Walsh and Charles Valentine Riley,coeditors of the first American
Entomologist, enjoyed a considerable correspondence with Darwin. Walsh went to
college with Darwin, and Riley even visited
Darwin when Riley was in England.
Although he died 127 years ago, the
above examples illustrate the point that we
are not that far removed from Darwin. The
popular trivia game that shows that we
are all within six degrees of Kevin Bacon,
when applied to Darwin, shows we have
even closer ties to the latter. In my case,
I have worked closely with Darwin's late
great-grandson Quentin Keynes, but since
Quentin never met his great-grandfather,
that might not apply. I did take classes from
William Horsfall, who as a graduate student
at Cornell knew Comstock, who wrote to
Darwin, which would take me within three
degrees of Darwin. I'd bet that if you think
about it, you will find that your connection
to Darwin is even closer than your connection to Kevin Bacon-all the more reason to
celebrate his birthday.
Darwin's birthday celebrations happily
coincide with the latest evolution ofAmerican
Entomologist. Asyou read the issue, you will
notice new layouts for our features, including
the use of new fonts, headings, and icons. I
want to thank Alan Kahan for his creativity
in developing our new look and Elizabeth
Ceasar for making it a reality. The evolution
of American Entomologist has brought us a
long way from the picture-less Bulletin of
the Entomological Sodety of America, with its
colored cardstock covers, to the handsome,
full-color journal that you read today.
©2009 Entomologcal Society of America
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American Entomologist (formerly Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America) (ISSN1046-2821) is published
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Gene Kritsky
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Book Reviews
Editorial Board
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Representative, Structural, Veterinary &
Public Health Systems Section
C.RileyNelson
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TomRoyer
Ad Hoc
JeffreyP.Shapiro
Representative, Integrative Physiological &
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Robert J.Wright
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American Entomologist • Spring 2009