Frank Eugene Lutz

Frank Eugene Lutz
Frank Eugene Lutz
BornSeptember 15, 1879
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
DiedNovember 27, 1943(1943-11-27) (aged 64)
EducationUniversity of Chicago
OccupationEntomologist
Employer(s)American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Known forgenetics of Drosophila

Frank Eugene Lutz (September 15, 1879 – November 27, 1943) was an American entomologist. He worked as a curator of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History. He took a special interest in insect ecology and behavior, beginning with studies on the chronobiology of crickets. He was also among the first to study genetics in Drosophila and was responsible for introducing it as a potentially superior model organism to T. H. Morgan. He was also a nature educator, and designed a self-guided trail system, and wrote several popular books on entomology.

Biography

Lutz was born in Bloomsburg. Lutz became interested in nature from an early age, and read extensively. He did well in school and his parents decided to let him enter college even though they were financially stretched to support him. His parents had initially wished that he would become an insurance agent, a career that did not require much education.

College and Cold Spring Harbor

He went to Haverford College, Pennsylvania where his father had suggested that he study mathematics as he knew of insurance companies offered well-paying actuarial jobs. He graduated in 1900 (A.B.). During his college days, his father once discovered a swarm of stick insects and reported it. Lutz knew that they were rare and remembered an advertisement of a New York firm that supplied specimens for study. He called the company and asked them if they were interested in a supply of specimens and what they would offer for a single stick insect. He was told they would pay a penny for one and he collected them in sacks without counting. He thought he must have about 2000 and asked for $15. Later in his career he met the president of that company.[1] At college he found the idea of becoming an actuary unexciting and considered medicine as a better pursuit. He then shifted to study biology subjects. He however had to fund his studies and he applied for an actuarial job at an insurance firm in Philadelphia where he was turned down due to bad handwriting. His biology professor Henry Sherring Pratt suggested that he should try for a scholarship under C. B. Davenport in Chicago and to work the summer at the Cold Spring Harbor where both Pratt and Davenport spent summers. The work involved dealing with dishes in the kitchen and dining room and also conducting some research. Davenport was interested in biometrics, the application of mathematical techniques to biology. Lutz collected and counted scallops examining the ridges on their shells and examined the variation using statistical techniques.

University of Chicago

The summer work and publication at the Cold Spring Harbor helped Lutz receive a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago. It only covered tuition and he lived in the spare bedroom of the Davenport family. He also worked at a restaurant to support his studies. He received his master's degree in 1902. In summer he went to Cold Spring Harbor and was involved in a mosquito control project. He then went to Europe to study biometrics for ten months under Karl Pearson.

Europe

Lutz went to England to University College, London, England, attending Pearson's classes. He was the first American student of Pearson.[2] He also visited Berlin before returning to the University of Chicago to begin work on his Ph.D.[3]

Return to the University of Chicago

Lutz returned to work on the biometrics of crickets. His supervisor Davenport headed the Station for Experimental Evolution in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York from 1904 to 1909. Lutz became a resident investigator there. He conducted genetic studies of Drosophila under William Ernest Castle who was also using rats to study genetics. At the time, Lutz found a extra-veined strain and also looked at a white eyed mutant form and its genetics and brought it to the attention of T. H. Morgan. This led Morgan to shift from using rats for his genetic experiments to Drosophila.[4] Assortative mating or the choice of mates with similar traits was one of his early interests. He examined assortative mating in humans using age comparisons of male and female partners.[5] He noted that in crickets the right wing overlaps the left wing in males. He was interested in the genetics of such asymmetry and later looked at inheritance patterns in traits such as which thumb is above when one clasps hands together.[6]

Lutz received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1907 under the supervision of C. B. Davenport. His thesis was on the morphometrics of cricket variation and was titled "The Variation and Correlations of Certain Taxonomic Characters of Gryllus".[3]

American Museum of Natural History

Henry E. Crampton who worked at the Cold Spring Harbor was in need of a person in the entomology department at the American Museum of Natural History. He offered it to Lutz who took it reluctantly. In 1909, Lutz became assistant curator of invertebrate zoology at American Museum of Natural History, New York City, becoming associate curator in 1916 and finally a curator in 1921.[2][7] Lutz went on collecting expeditions to the West Indies, Central and South America. He sent out specimens to specialists at various institutions and never described any new species, even taking pride for it. He studied living insects, ecology and behavior. He conducted experiments on crickets under artificial light and dark conditions to examine their endogenous circadian behavior in 1932.[8][9] From 1922 he also worked with Floyd K. Richtmyer and conducted experiments on ultraviolet vision in insects.[10] He also studied their perception in a range of bees which led to the award of a Abraham Cressy Morrison Prize.[11] He also took an interest in insect calls and made gramophone records of a range of insects and frogs.[12][7]

In 1925, Lutz pioneered the first self-guided or signed nature trail in the United States in Harriman State Park, an idea that spread quickly to parks across the country and the world.[13][14][15] He served as a president of the Entomological Society of America in 1927.[7]

Personal life

Lutz married Martha Ellen Brobson of Philadelphia in 1904. They had four children.[3]

Writing

Lutz made numerous contributions to the scientific journals on the subjects of variation, heredity, assortative mating and entomology. He wrote Field Book of Insects, published in 1917, and illustrated in the main by Edna Libby Beutenmüller.[16] Among his best known "expeditions" was a study of the insects in his backyard in Ramsey, New Jersey which he documented in his book A Lot of Insects, published in 1941.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Pallister (1966):9-16.
  2. 1 2 Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Lutz, Frank Eugene" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  3. 1 2 3 John C. Pallister (1973). "Lutz, Frank Eugene". Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. Supplement Three 1941-1945. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  4. ↑ Giansanti, Maria Grazia; Frappaolo, Anna; Piergentili, Roberto (August 2, 2025). "Drosophila melanogaster: How and Why It Became a Model Organism". International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 26 (15): 7485. doi:10.3390/ijms26157485. ISSN 1422-0067. PMC 12347407. PMID 40806617.
  5. ↑ Lutz, Frank E. (August 25, 1905). "Assortative Mating in Man". Science. 22 (556): 249–250. doi:10.1126/science.22.556.249. ISSN 0036-8075.
  6. ↑ Lutz, Frank E. (1908). "The Inheritance of the Manner of Clasping the Hands". The American Naturalist. 42 (495): 195–196. doi:10.1086/278920. ISSN 0003-0147.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Emerson, A E (March 1944). "Frank Eugene Lutz". Science. 99 (2569). United States: 233–4. Bibcode:1944Sci....99..233E. doi:10.1126/science.99.2569.233. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17753043. S2CID 41048053.
  8. ↑ Levy, Keren; Barnea, Anat; Tauber, Eran; Ayali, Amir (2024). "Crickets in the spotlight: exploring the impact of light on circadian behavior". Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 210 (2): 267–279. doi:10.1007/s00359-023-01686-y. ISSN 0340-7594. PMC 10994875. PMID 38252321.
  9. ↑ Lutz, F.E. (1932). "Experiments with Orthoptera concerning diurnal rhythm". American Museum Novitates (550): 1–24. hdl:2246/4156.
  10. ↑ Lutz, F. E.; Richtmyer, F. K. (1922). "The reaction of Drosophila to ultraviolet". Science. 55 (1428): 519. Bibcode:1922Sci....55..519L. doi:10.1126/science.55.1428.519. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17738858.
  11. ↑ Lutz, Frank E. (1920). "Apparently non-selective characters and combinations of characters includin a study of ultraviolet in relation to the flower-visiting habits of insects". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 29 (1): 181–283. Bibcode:1920NYASA..29..181L. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1920.tb55356.x. ISSN 0077-8923.
  12. ↑ Lutz, F.E. (1930). "An analysis by Movietone of a cricket's chirp (Gryllus assimilis). American Museum novitates". American Museum Novitates (420): 1–14. hdl:2246/3783.
  13. ↑ Torrey, Raymond H. (July 31, 1927). "OUTDOOR MUSEUM SET UP IN PARK; Bear Mountain Area Has Been Equipped With Exhibit Hall and Trailside Indicators of Hudson Geology, Flora and Birds". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  14. ↑ "About Us | Trailside Museums and Zoo". Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  15. ↑ Carr, William H. (1937). Ten years of nature trailing: The nature trails and trailside museums at Bear Mountain, N. Y. The American Museum of Natural History.
  16. ↑ Brues, Charles T. (1918). "Book Reviews: Field Book of Insects, by F. E. Lutz and A Year of Costa Rican Natural History by A. S. and P. P. Calvert". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 25 (2): 36. doi:10.1155/1918/69793.

Further reading

  • Pallister, John (1966). In the steps of the great American entomologist Frank Eugene Lutz. New York: M. Evans and Company.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.