Asa Fitch (entomologist)

Asa Fitch

Asa Fitch (born February 24, 1809 in Salem , New York ; † April 8, 1879 ibid) was an American natural historian and entomologist .

Career

Asa Fitch was born and raised in Salem approximately three years before the outbreak of the British-American War . He studied both natural history and medicine at the newly founded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , where he graduated in 1827. In 1838 he decided to study agriculture and entomology . In the same year he began collecting and studying insects in New York. In 1854 he became the first knowledgeable entomologist of the New York State Agricultural Society in the state of New York and thereby simultaneously in the United States.

His extensive studies of many insects helped scientists solve some of the issues surrounding crop damage from insects. Many of his notebooks are now in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution . Fitch discovered the rodent botfly Cuterebra emasculator in 1856 . He died on April 8, 1879 in Salem.

Works (selection)

First and second report on the noxious, beneficial and other insects, of the state of New York . Albany 1856 ( biodiversity heritage library )

literature

Samuel, Rezneck (1970-80): "Fitch, Asa". Dictionary of Scientific Biography . 5. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0684101149 , p. 11f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Fitch, Asa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH	February 24, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH	Salem , New York
DATE OF DEATH	April 8, 1879
Place of death	Salem , New York