Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell
Born	(1866-08-22)August 22, 1866 Norwood, Greater London
Died	San Diego, California
Resting place	Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado
Citizenship	United States
Nationality	English
Fields	Zoology, Botany
Institutions	New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, New Mexico Normal University, University of Colorado, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Alma mater	Middlesex Hospital Medical School
Notable students	Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis
Author abbrev. (botany)	Cockerell
Spouses	Annie Fenn Cockerell; Wilmatte Porter Cockerell

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866–1948) was an American zoologist, born at Norwood, England, and brother of Sydney Cockerell. He was educated at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and then studied botany in the field in Colorado in 1887–90. Subsequently he became a taxonomist and published numerous papers on the Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, and Mollusca, as well as publications on paleontology and evolution.

Professional life

Between 1891 and 1901 Cockerell was curator of the public museum of Kingston, Jamaica, professor of entomology of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1900–03 he was instructor in biology at the New Mexico Normal University. While there he taught and mentored the botanist Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis. In 1903–04 Cockerell was the curator of the Colorado College Museum; and in 1904 he became lecturer on entomology and in 1906 professor of systematic zoology, at the University of Colorado, where he worked with Junius Henderson in establishing the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. During World War II he operated the Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California.

Publications

Cockerell was author of more than 2,200 articles in scientific publications, especially on the Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, and Mollusca, and on paleontology and various phases of evolution, plus some 1700 additional authored works, including treatises on social reform and education. He was one of the most prolific taxonomists in history, publishing descriptions of over 9,000 species and genera of insects alone, some 6,400 of which were bees, and some 1,000 mollusks, arachnids, fungi, mammals, fish and plants. This includes descriptions of numerous fossil taxa, such as the landmark study, Some Fossil Insects from Florissant, Colorado (1913).

Honors

A dorm in the Engineering Quad at the University of Colorado at Boulder is named in his honor.

Taxa

Taxa named by Cockerell include:

Name	Year	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Anthidium exhumatum	1906	Florissant Formation	USA	A mason bee
Anthidium scudderi	1906	Florissant Formation	USA	A mason bee
Archimyrmex rostratus	1923	Green River Formation	USA	A myrmeciine ant
Elisolimax	1893		Extant	a land slug genus
Dinopanorpa megarche	1924	Khutsin Formation	Russia	A scorpion fly
Hydriomena? protrita	1922	Florissant Formation	USA	A Butterfly	Hydriomena? protrit
Protostephanus ashmeadi	1906	Florissant Formation	A crown wasp
Palaeovespa	1906	Baltic amber & Florissant Formation, Colorado	Europe USA	an Eocene wasp genus	Palaeovespa florissantia
Tortrix? destructus	1917	Florissant Formation	USA	a moth
Tortrix? florissantana	1907	Florissant Formation	USA	A moth
Trigona corvina	1913		Central America & South America	A stingless bee

Personal life

Cockerell with his wife Wilmatte Porter Cockerell, 1935

Cockerell was born in Norwood, Greater London and died in San Diego, California.

He married Annie Penn in 1891 (she died in 1893) and Wilmatte A. Porter in 1900. In 1901, he named the ultramarine blue chromodorid Mexichromis porterae in her honor. Before and after their marriage in 1900, they frequently went on collecting expeditions together and assembled a large private library of natural history films, which they showed to schoolchildren and public audiences to promote the cause of environmental conservation.

After his death he was buried in Columbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  The Nautilus 1902 16:19-21.

External links

• Biography of Cockerell
• GAP Biography
• Works by T. D. A. Cockerell at Project Gutenberg