Thursday 20 August 2020

Grimshaw System - historic geekiness we can't live without

 In 1905 Percy Grimshaw, dissatisfied with the methods of describing bristles on the legs of flies while preparing a work on Hydrotaea (one of my favourite genera), devised a system which was, in Colyer and Hammond, referred to as "The Grimshaw System". I'm not sure how may people know he invented it, or even who he was, but I was buzzing today to find the original article from 1905 available here:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/36031#page/201/mode/1up

He makes the case for the need, describes the system and then demonstrates its use on Calliphora erythrocephala M. (= C.vicina).

Percy not only did a whole lot for Scottish entomology but he gave us a basic alphabet that people use on a daily basis with almost certainly no idea where it came from.

More about Percy:

http://grimshaworigin.org/miscellaneous-grimshaw-individuals/percy-h-grimshaw-dipterist/


1 comment:

  1. That's really rather excellent! No faffing around either, his terminology does exactly what it says on the tin.

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