Wilmatte Porter Cockerell

Wilmatte Porter Cockerell (July 28, 1870 - January 1, 1957)[1] was an American entomologist and high school biology teacher who discovered and collected a large number of insect specimens and other organisms. She participated in numerous research and collecting field trips including the Cockerell-Mackie-Ogilvie expedition. She wrote several scientific articles in her own right, co-authored more with her husband, Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, and assisted him with his prolific scientific output. She discovered and cultivated red sunflowers, eventually selling the seeds to commercial seed companies. Her husband and her entomological colleagues named a number of taxa in her honor.

Wilmatte Porter Cockerell
Cockerell with her husband Theodore in their garden, 1935
Born
Wilmatte Porter

1869
Leon, Iowa, United States
Died15 March 1957 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California
Resting placeColumbia Cemetery, Boulder, Colorado
NationalityAmerican
EducationStanford University
Known forDiscovery and collection of species of fauna and flora
SpouseTheodore Dru Alison Cockerell
Awards1915 Medal, Panama–Pacific International Exposition
Scientific career
FieldsEntomology

Biography

Cockerell was born Wilmatte Porter in Leon, Iowa, in 1869.[2] She attended Stanford University and graduated from there in 1898.[3]

From 1899 she was employed as a professor of biology at the New Mexico Normal University in Las Vegas, New Mexico.[4] There she met Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, a self-taught entomologist from England specialising in Hymenoptera, who was also employed at that college.[5][6][7][8] Theodore had established the New Mexico biological station at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Mesilla a few years earlier, but in 1899 he moved it to Las Vegas, where he used the facilities of the New Mexico Normal University (he was employed there himself the following year). Theodore used the biological station to teach summer classes in applied biology to mostly public school teachers. By 1900 Cockerell was the assistant director of the station with Theodore being the director.[4] Some of the results from work undertaken at the station were jointly published by Theodore and Cockerell in 1899.[5][9][10]

Cockerell married Theodore on June 19, 1900.[6] After her marriage she frequently went on collecting expeditions with Theodore.[11] As well as accompanying her husband on field trips, she collaborated with him on his scientific research and writing.[5] After her marriage Cockerell combined teaching with collecting, and wrote a number of papers on entomology, some as sole author.[12][13] She was much better than her husband at catching insects, on some field trips out-collecting him nine to one. Both Cockerells were badly paid, and it is known Wilmatte sometimes supplemented the family income by selling specimens she obtained while on her field trips to professional full-time insect collectors, who in some cases altered the collection locality on the labels to make the insects appear more exotic and increase their value.[8]

In 1904 Cockerell and her husband moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Cockerell was employed as a biology teacher at the Colorado State Preparatory School.[7] She continued at that high school for much of her teaching career.[3] In February 1904 Science Magazine published a short article Cockerell had sent in about a local plant she mistakenly called Picradenia odorata utilis which a friend had suggested might be a source of rubber, and that her husband had begun to research. The plant had actually just been described in 1903 in the first issue of a new local Colorado scientific magazine as P. floribunda utilis, although in September 1904 her husband moved it to Hymenoxys floribunda utilis. It is now considered a synonym of H. richardsonii var. floribunda.[14][15][16]

Deep red sunflower

In 1910 Cockerell discovered a red sunflower across the road from her home in a field. This sunflower was a mutant that she and Theodore transferred to their garden. Cockerell proceeded cultivate it further, developing the mutation to the point where it could be sold to commercial seed companies.[17] Seed companies such as Peter Henderson & Co, Sutton & Sons, and Burpee marketed the red sunflower seeds throughout the world.[7][3][18] The Cockerells were awarded a medal for their work on these sunflowers at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915.[3]

Field trips

In August 1902 Cockerell took a field trip to Truchas Peak, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, where she collected bees and other insects. This trip resulted in her first scientific report published as sole author, A trip to the Truchas Peaks, New Mexico in the journal The American Naturalist.[19]

In 1906 the Cockerells visited the Florissant Fossil Beds with Sievert Allen Rohwer and W. M. Wheeler, and with them collected specimens and published various articles about the fossil insects found at this site.[6]

During the summers after 1911, the Cockerells undertook various field trips the world over collecting bees, insects, and studying flora and fauna.[7] During these field trips, as well as providing specimens for her husband's research, Cockerell's collecting also provided other entomologists with specimens to research. In 1912 Cockerell and her husband traveled to Guatemala. There she collected numerous insect specimens including many wasps, some of which were species previously unknown to science. These were studied by Rohwer who named two species after her.[20] Also in 1912, while traveling in Guatemala, Cockerell collected three specimens of cacti for National Herbarium at the Smithsonian. These were sent to the botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose. They reclassified their just described Hylocereus minutiflorus as a monotypic species in the genus Wilmattea in her honor, although this change has since been rescinded.[21]

In August 1918, Cockerell and her husband went on a field trip to Peaceful Valley, Colorado, where again she collected specimens of numerous species previously unknown to science.[22]

Cockerell and her husband traveled to the United Kingdom in 1921, and visited the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.[23]

In 1923 Cockerell and Theodore undertook a trip to Japan. They traveled on the steamer Aleut. While in Japan they had a narrow escape in the Great Kantō earthquake. The Denver Times reported that Cockerell and her husband were believed lost in the catastrophe.[24]

In the later half of 1931 into 1932 the Cockerells went to Africa on what they christened the "Cockerell-Mackie-Ogilvie Expedition". They were accompanied by the naturalist Alice Mackie.[25] The expedition visited many areas of Africa including the Congo where the group collected over 16,000 specimens, especially of bees. Once again numerous specimens of various species were collected by them that up until then had been unknown to science.[26][27]

After Theodore retired, Cockerell spent her winters with her husband in California. They both worked as volunteer curators at the Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California, from 1941. They were not paid for this work but did receive housing as part compensation until 1945. In 1946 Cockerell and her husband began working at Escuela Agricola Panamericana in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.[7] After Theodore died in San Diego, California, in 1948, Cockerell taught at Piney Woods School near Jackson, Mississippi.[6]

Death

Cockerell died March 15, 1957, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.[2] She is buried in Columbia Cemetery, Boulder.[6][28]

Bibliography
  • Cockerell, T.D.A.; Porter, W. : XLVI.—Contributions from the New Mexico biological station—VIII. The New Mexico bees of the genus Bombus. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Vol 7, No. 4 (1899), pp. 386–393.
  • Cockerell, T.D.A.; Porter, W. : XLVIII.—Contributions from the New Mexico Biological Station.—VII. Observations on bees, with descriptions of new genera and species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Vol 7, No. 4 (1899), pp. 386–393.
  • Cockerell, T. D.A.; Porter, W. :VIII.—Contributions from the New Mexico biological station—IX. On certain genera of bees. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Vol 7, No. 37 (1901), pp. 46–50.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Porter, Wilmatte . A New Crayfish from New Mexico. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia v. 52 (1900) 434–435.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "A new mealy-bug on grass roots". The Canadian Entomologist v. 33, No. 12 (1901), pp. 336–337.
  • Cockerell, W. P.; Cockerell, T. D. A. "A new gooseberry plant-louse". The Canadian Entomologist v. 33, No. 08 (1901), pp. 227–228.
  • Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "The red-tailed bumble-bee's nest". Birds and nature (1903) v. 13, pp. 17–18.
  • Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "The nesting of a carpenter bee". Birds and nature (1903) v. 14, pp. 127–128.
  • Cockerell, W. P. "A trip to the Truchas Peaks, New Mexico". The American Naturalist v. 37, (1903), pp. 887 – 891
  • Cockerell, W. P. "Some Aphids Associated With Ants". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology v. 10, no. 325-326 (1903), pp. 216–218.
  • Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "Note on a rubber-producing plant". Science Magazine. 19 (477) (1904), pp. 314–315.
  • Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter. "The Ants' Herd." Birds and nature (1904) v. 15, pp. 54–55.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Rohwer, S. A.; Wheeler; W. M.; Cockerell; W. P. "The bees of Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 25.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "A fossil cicada from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 26.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A; Cockerell, W. P.; Rohwer, S. A. "The Fossil Mollusca of Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1906), v. 22, article 27.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. "Fossil dragonflies from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1907), v. 23, article 5.
  • Cockerell, T. D. A.; Cockerell, W. P. ; Rohwer, S. A. "Fossile Diptera from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1909), v. 26, article 2.
  • Cockerell, W. P. "Collecting Bees in Southern Texas". Journal of the New York Entomological Society Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1917), pp. 187–193

Taxa named in honor of Wilmatte Porter Cockerell
Felimare porterae
Anthidium porterae
Anthophora porterae

Plants
  • Viola wilmattae C.L. Pollard & Cockerell, 1902. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . 15: 178. - not really a species, but a single plant identified as a hybrid of V. pedatifida with V. nephrophylla in 1913, both species of which had plants growing nearby. Cockerell collected the holotype.[29][30]
  • Castilleja x porterae Cockerell, 1904
  • Nyctaginia cockerelliae E.Nelson, 1903
  • Senegalia cockerelliae Britton & Rose, 1928 = Acacia cockerelliae (Britton & Rose) Lundell, 1940
  • Glyphomitrium cockerelleae Britton & Hollick (now known as Plagiopodopsis cockerelliae (Britton & Hollick)). A fossilised moss named in honour of Cockerell in recognition of her devotion to science and her assistance in collecting specimens.[31]
  • Populus wilmattae Cockerell, 1926[32]
  • Wilmattea Britton & Rose, 1920[33]

Mollusks
  • Ashmunella thomsoniana ssp. porterae Pilsbry & Cockerell, 1899[34]

Sea slugs

Bees
  • Andrena porterae Cockerell, 1900[36]
  • Andrena wilmattae Cockerell, T. D. A.1906. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Ser. 7 17: 224.
  • Anthidium porterae Cockerell, 1900.[36]
  • Anthophora porterae Cockerell, 1900[36]
  • Arachnophroctonus cockerellae Rohwer, S. A. 1914. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 47: 515.
  • Bombus lateralis wilmattae Cockerell, T. D. A. 1912. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Ser. 8 10: 21.
  • Coelioxys wilmattae Cockerell, T. D. A. 1949. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 98 (3233): 451.
  • Exomalopsis wilmattae Cockerell, T. D. A. 1949. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 98 (3233): 454.
  • Hesperapis wilmattae Cockerell, 1933.[37]
  • Perdita wilmattae Cockerell, T. D. A. 1906. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 22: 441.
  • Ptiloglossa wilmattae Cockerell, 1949[38]
  • Teucholabis cockerellae Alexander, C. P. 1915. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 48: 442

Hemiptera
  • Ripersia cockerellae King, 1902[39] (now recognised as a synonym of Chnaurococcus trifolii)

References
  1. "Wilmatte Cockerell". geni.com. 28 July 1870. Archived from the original on 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  2. GravesScribe. "Willmatte Porter Cockerell". Find a grave. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  3. Taylor, Carol (15 July 2012). "Boulder history: Wilmatte Cockerell and the red sunflower". Daily Camera. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  4. New Mexico Normal University (1900). Bulletin. New Mexico: New Mexico Normal University. p. 38.
  5. Creese, Mary R. S.; Creese, Thomas M. (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory?: American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow. p. 71. ISBN 978-0810832879.
  6. Weber, William A., ed. (2004). The Valley of the Second Sons: Letters of Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, A Young English Naturalist, Writing to His Sweetheart and Her Brother About His Life in West Cliff, Wet Mountain Valley, Colorado, 1887-1890. Longmont, Colo.: Pilgrims Process. pp. i–xxi. ISBN 978-0971060999.
  7. "Featured Collections: Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell Papers". University Libraries. University of Colorado. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  8. Scott, James A.; Fisher, Michael S. (2014). "Argynnis (Speyeria) nokomis nokomis: Geographic variation, metapopulations, and the origin of spurious specimens (Nymphalidae)" (PDF). Papilio. New Series. 21: 2–4. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 17, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  9. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (14 June 1901). "The New Mexico Biological Station". Science. 13 (337): 954. Bibcode:1901Sci....13..954C. doi:10.1126/science.13.337.954. PMID 17733662. Archived from the original on 12 October 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  10. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison; Porter, Wilmatte (1899). "VIII.—Contributions from the New Mexico biological station—IX. On certain genera of bees". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 7 (4): 403–421. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  11. "Wilmatte Porter Cockerell (1871-1957) and Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866-1948)". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  12. Cockerell, W. P. "Collecting Bees in Southern Texas". Journal of the New York Entomological Society Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1917), pp. 187–193
  13. Cockerell, W. P. "Some Aphids Associated With Ants". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology 10, no. 325-326 (1903), pp. 216–218
  14. Ewan, Joseph (1950). "Rocky Mountain Naturalists". The University of Denver Press.
  15. Porter Cockerell, Wilmatte (19 February 1904). "Note on a rubber-producing plant (in Special Articles)". Science Magazine. 19 (477): 314–315. doi:10.1126/science.19.477.314-b. PMID 17833327. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  16. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (September 1904). "The North American Species of Hymenoxys". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 31 (9): 486. doi:10.2307/2478737. hdl:2027/hvd.32044107256828. JSTOR 2478737.
  17. Cockerell, T.D.A. (1918). "The story of the red sunflower". The American Museum Journal. 18: 39–47. Archived from the original on 2020-12-10. Retrieved 2020-11-29 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  18. "Hendersons New Red Sunflowers". Biodiversity Heritage Library. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
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  20. Rohwer, Sievert Allen (1915). "Vespoid and sphecoid Hymenoptera collected in Guatemala by WP Cockerell". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 47 (2061): 513–523. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.2061.513. hdl:2027/hvd.32044072276637. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  21. Rose, J. N. "Rose, greenhouse cacti, 1912, 1919 - 1929" (PDF). Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Centre. Smithsonian Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  22. Cockerell, T. D. A. (1919). "The bees of Peaceful Valley, Colorado". Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 4 (27): 298–300.
  23. Cockerell, T D A (March 1937). "Recollections of a Naturalist IV, The Amateur Botanist". BIOS. 8 (1): 12–18.
  24. "Boulder pair in quake zone". Denver Times. September 4, 1923.
  25. "Alice Mackie Diaries". cudl.colorado.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
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  28. California Death Index, 1940-1997.
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  30. Brainerd, Ezra (June 1913). "Four Hybrids of Viola pedatifida". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 40 (6): 259. doi:10.2307/2479736. JSTOR 2479736.
  31. Britton, Elizabeth Gertrude; Hollick, Arthur (1907). "American Fossil Mosses, with Description of a New Species from Florissant, Colorado". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 34 (3): 139–142. doi:10.2307/2479149. ISSN 0040-9618. JSTOR 2479149. Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  32. Cockerell, T.D.A. (1926). "Plant and insect fossils from the Green River Eocene of Colorado". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 66 (19): 1–16. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.66-2556.1. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  33. Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Rose, Joseph Nelson (1920). The Cactaceae : descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family / by N.L. Britton and J.N. Rose. Vol. 2. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. p. 195. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46288. OCLC 2088052. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  34. Pilsbry, H. A.; Cockerell, T. D. A. (September 1899). "Another new Ashmunella". The Nautilus. 13: 49–50. Archived from the original on 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2020-11-30 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  35. Cockerell, T.D.A. (1902). "Three new species of Chromodoris". The Nautilus. 16 (2): 19–21. Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2020-11-30 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  36. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (1900-05-01). "LIV.—Observations on bees collected at Las Vegas, New Mexico, and in the adjacent Mountains". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 5 (29): 401–416. doi:10.1080/00222930008678307. S2CID 85894354. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  37. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (1933). "Bees collected at Borego, California, by Wilmatte P. Cockerell & Milene Porter". The Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 9 (1): 25–28. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-01 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  38. Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (1949-01-01). "Bees from Central America, Principally Honduras". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 98 (3233): 429–490. doi:10.5479/SI.00963801.98-3233.429. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  39. King, George B. (1902-02-01). "Some new Coccidae". Entomological News, and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 13: 41–43. Archived from the original on 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-01 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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