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Steve Wood at Cuernavaca, Mex. symposium, 1982; photo by M.M. Furniss

Stephen L. Wood, a scolytid taxonomist, has dominated this field since he received his PhD from University of Kansas in 1953 (Cryphalini). His first job was at Ottawa (1953-56) where Karl Schedl also worked. Thereafter, he accepted a position as professor of entomology at Brigham Young University in his home state of Utah and continues working on Scolytidae (he insists that they stay a family) since retiring. It is impossible to measure or to characterize the importance of his work in other than personal terms. I came along in forest entomology about the same time, first in the role of a forester, then entomologist, and now of a sort that defies classification. Oh, I guess naturalist comes to mind, others may have different names! But, what I wish to say is that by the time I retired in 1982, I had traveled and collected (read observed, admired) scolytids widely in western North America. Hundreds of these collections were alive, in their host, and were reared subsequently. I kept Steve busy identifying them (!) and thereby built the scolytid collection at the University of Idaho Barr Museum into a major one.

Now (in 1982), I was in happy circumstances. The taxonomy and related literature that had been so fragmented, was now packaged in Steve's monograph of that year. Additionally, Donald E. Bright, Jr. had revised the large and troublesome genus Pityophthorus and published on the scolytids of Canada; and R.L. Furniss and V.M. Carolin had published their book on western forest insects. This led to much fruitful work in the intervening years and has, indeed, helped to make me competent to identify the native scolytid fauna of the areas extending from Mexico to Alaska that I have visited. Thus, largely through Steve's incomparable contributions to scolytid taxonomy and his welcoming all those specimens that I sent to him, much of what I have done flows from him. It is interesting to note that Steve's own attraction to scolytids came about through outings in Utah with his uncle, Ted Thatcher, who taught forest entomology at Colorado State University. Here is his account: "The first insect I examined critically and collected for permanent preservation was Trypodendron retusum LeConte. At the age 14 years I was introduced to it by T. O. Thatcher on 21 June 1939 at Lehman Creek Canyon, White Pine County, Nevada, near the base of Wheeler Peak. The attraction was immediate and permanent." What date (calendar or any other) at age 14 do I remember? Nil, as they say in British soccer. -- Malcolm M. Furniss

Stephen Lane Wood, 84, of Provo, Utah, died July 1, 2009. His scolytid collection, which he estimated to number around 100,000 specimens, has been donated to the U.S. National Museum in Washington, DC.

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