Elizabeth A. Bernays (1940[1] – 5 March 2024) was an Australian entomologist who was a Regents Professor at the University of Arizona.[2] She was known for studies of physiological, behavioural, and ecological interactions between plants, herbivorous insects and their predators. Bernays worked on the feeding behaviour of a variety of insects including aphids, grasshoppers, and hawkmoths.[3][4][5] She was known for championing the idea that predation drove many insects to specialise on a few species of hostplants, rather than specialisation being solely the outcome of a chemical arms race between plant and insect herbivores.[6][7][8]
Early life
editEducated at the University of Queensland, Australia, she moved to London to teach high school students; she subsequently studied for a PhD there.[9] Prior to moving to the University of Arizona, she was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.[8]
Career
editBernays published more than 100 book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, edited volumes and books on a variety of entomological subjects including insect learning, feeding, taste and water homeostasis.[10][11][12] Her research into the feeding behaviour of insects helped guide interventions designed to minimise crop pest damage.[9] Along with Michael S. Singer, she published a paper in 2005 in Nature showing that parasitised tiger moth caterpillars have greater sensitivity to pyrrolizidine alkaloids than non-parasitised caterpillars and that parasitised caterpillars seek out plants containing these chemicals to defend themselves from predation and parasitism.[13][14]
Academic honours
editIn 1986, she received the Vatican's highest scientific honour, the Pius XI Gold Medal of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.[15]
Late career activities
editAfter retirement, Bernays studied for a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona.[8] She wrote two memoirs. The first memoir, Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Live, described her childhood experiences with nature, her work with her husband as an applied entomologist in Africa, and her professional experiences as a woman in science moving from the science culture of the U.K. to a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley.[16] Her second memoir, Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair, describes her personal and creative relationship with her wife Linda Hitchcock which included collaborating on children's nature books and travelling the southwestern U.S.[17]
Personal life
editShe was married to the English entomologist Reginald Frederick Chapman until his death in 2003. She met Linda Hitchcock, photojournalist in 2004 and subsequently married in 2018 .
Selected books and edited volumes
edit- Herbivores and Plant Tannins with Gillian A. Cooper-Driver and M. Bilgener, London: Academic Press, 1989.
- Insect-Plant Interactions, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1990.
- Host-Plant Selection by Phytophagous Insects with R.F. Chapman, New York: Chapman & Hall, 1994.
- Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Life, Florida: Raised Voices Press, 2019.
- Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair, Arizona: Wheatmark, 2023.
References
edit- ^ "VIAF ID 93683213". VIAF. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
- ^ Garvey, Kathy Keatley (25 March 2024). "In Remembrance: Entomologists Charles Mitter, Elizabeth Bernays and Kim Flottum". UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Bernays, Elizabeth A.; Funk, Daniel J. (1999). "Specialists make faster decisions than generalists: experiments with aphids". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. 266 (1415): 151–156. doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0615. PMC 1689657.
- ^ Copenhaver, Larry (18 December 1990). "Pet project: Marvelous munching Menlanoplus excite, sadden students". Tucson Citizen. pp. C1. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Espelie, K.S.; Bernays, E.A. (1989). "Diet-related differences in the cuticular lipids of Manduca sexta larvar". Journal of Chemical Ecology. 15 (7): 2003–2017. doi:10.1007/BF01207433. PMID 24272291.
- ^ Mira, Alex; Bernays, Elizabeth A. (2002). "Tradeoffs in host use by Manduca sexta: plant characters versus natural enemies". Oikos. 97: 387–397. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0706.2002.970309.x.
- ^ Frederick, Donald J. (5 September 1993). "Potent ocean poisons could help fight diseases on land". Los Angeles Times. pp. A10. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ a b c Minard, Anne (19 January 2005). "The writing bug has captured scientist". Arizona Daily Star. pp. B1–B2. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ a b Bernays, Elizabeth A. (2019). "An Unlikely Beginning: A Fortunate Life". Annual Review of Entomology. 64: 1–13. doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-011118-111820. PMID 30629895.
- ^ Reuven, Dukas; Bernays, Elizabeth A (2000). "Learning improves growth rate in grasshoppers". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97: 2637–26. doi:10.1073/pnas.05046149 (inactive 1 November 2024).
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - ^ Reisenman, Carolina E.; Riffell, Jeffrey A.; Bernays, Elizabeth A.; Hildebrand, John A. (2010). "Antagonistic effects of floral scent in an insect–plant interaction". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 277 (1692): 2371–2379. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0163. PMC 2894902. PMID 20335210.
- ^ Woods, H. Arthur; Bernays, Elizabeth A. (2001). "Water homeostasis by wild larvae of Manduca sexta". Physiological Entomology. 25: 82–87. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3032.2000.00167.x.
- ^ Bernays, Elizabeth A.; Singer, Michael S. (2005). "Taste alteration and endoparasites". Nature. 436 (7050): 476. doi:10.1038/436476a. PMID 16049466.
- ^ Hathaway, William (1 August 2005). "Insect eats to fight what ails it". Los Angeles Times. pp. F6. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ "Berkeley Professor Honored by Vatican". Los Angeles Times. 13 September 1986. p. 19.
- ^ "Local authors cover wide range of topics". Arizona Daily Star. 1 May 2022. pp. E2. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ "Poems, memoirs, history and mysteries". Arizona Daily Star. 3 September 2023. pp. E7. Retrieved 12 May 2024.