Alexander Petrunkevitch

Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch (1875 in Pliski near Kiev – 1964 Yale) was an eminent arachnologist of his time. From 1910 to 1939 he described over 130 spider species.

Biography

His aristocratic father, Ivan Illitch Petrunkevitch, was a liberal member of the First Duma and founded the Constitutional Democratic Party. After finishing his studies in Moscow and in Freiburg under August Weismann, he settled in Yale in 1910, becoming a full professor in 1917. Apart from describing Recent species, he was a major figure in the study of fossil arachnids, including those in amber and from the Coal Measures. He also experimented with live specimens and worked on insects. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1954. Throughout his career he remained politically active, trying to increase awareness of problems in Russia. He was also a skilled machinist and wrote two volumes of poetry (under the pseudonym Alexandr Jan-Ruban), and translated Pushkin into the English language, and Byron into Russian. He died in 1964. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Died |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940393-2,00.html |quote=Alexander Petrunkevitch, 88, Ukrainian-born arachnologist, famed at Yale (where he taught from 1910 to 1944) for weekly teas and vivid lectures ("The lobster stomach, she pump all time long"), the 20th century's greatest authority on spiders, who devoted 25,-000 hours to amassing a huge collection (including 180 "magnificent" live tarantulas), produced more than 100 books and monographs on scorpions, black widows, and other varieties, including nearly a dozen insects named after him; of pneumonia; in New Haven. |work=Time (magazine) |date=1964 |accessdate=2008-08-04 ]

References

Further reading

* [http://www.yale.edu/peabody/archives/ypmbios/petrunkevitch.html Short Bio]
* [http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/reinking2/chapter90/custom10/deluxe-content.html Another short bio]

External links

* [http://darwin.nap.edu/books/0309044421/html/234.html Photograph]
* [http://darwin.nap.edu/books/0309044421/html/234.html Longer biography]
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