Cynthia Longfield

Cynthia Longfield (born August 16, 1896 - June 27, 1991 ) was an Irish biologist . She was an expert on dragonflies .

Life

The family owned one property in Cloyne and one in London. In her youth, Cynthia and her sisters alternated between these two. The country estate in Cloyne sparked her interest in plants and insects, but at the age of 14 the educational opportunities there seemed insufficient. Therefore, her mother provided her with books by Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley , which she appropriated in self-study.

She has worked at the Natural History Museum since returning from her trip to South America in 1921 , where she worked primarily on African dragonfly species. In 1924 she looked after the insect house at London Zoo . In the same year she toured the Pacific Islands as an assistant to the entomologist Cyril Collenette, who became her great love, although she did not marry him. In 1927 she took him on a trip to Brazil and was able to collect numerous species of dragonflies for the museum. The species Corphaeschna longfieldae named after her also originates from this trip . Another name is Agrionopter insignis cynthiae . In 1932 she toured the Rocky Mountains in Canada with her sister . In 1934 she toured Africa alone for six months and came back with a large collection of insects. She published The Dragonflies of the British Isles in 1937, which became the standard manual. In the following year she toured Africa again with Cecil Rhodes' niece .

During World War II, she became the head of the Brompton Fire Station in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . After retiring at age 60, she moved back to the family seat in Cloyne until her death. She continued to travel extensively, mainly to European countries, to specialist conferences and published Dragonflies with two co-authors in 1960 . She was buried in the cathedral in Cloyne and there is a stone plaque there.

Works

• 1936. Studies on African Odonata, with synonymy, and descriptions of new species and subspecies. Trans. R. ent. Soc. London 85 (20): 467-498.
• 1936) Contribution à l'étude de la faune du Mozambique. Voyage de MP Lesne (1928-1929). 23e note - Odonata. Memórias e Estudos do Museu Zoológico da Universidade de Coimbra , 89: 1–2. Insecta. C. Longfield.
• (1945) - The Odonata of South Angola. Arquivos do Museu Bocage , 16, Lisboa.
• (1955) - The Odonata of N. Angola. Publicações Culturais, Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang), Lisboa, 27: 11–63. Biologia. Entomologia. Angola .
• (1959) - The Odonata of N. Angola. Publicações Culturais, Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang), Lisboa, 45: 11–42. Entomologia. Angola.
• (1960) Dragonflies Corbet, PS, Longfield, CN and Moore, NW New Naturalist No 41, Collins, London.

literature

• Jane Hayter-Hames: Madam Dragonfly: the life and times of Cynthia Longfield. Pentland Press, Edinburgh et al. a. 1991.

Web links

• Literature by and about Cynthia Longfield in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Article on Cynthia Longfield at Irishscientists
• Article on Cynthia Longfield at siliconrepublic