P. S. Nathan, P. Susai Nathan or P. Susainathan (18 April 1891 – 17 March 1976) was an Indian naturalist, entomologist and a natural history specimen collector and dealer. His natural history business was continued by his daughter-in-law Theresa Rajabai Susai Nathan and still later by her daughter-in-law Nellie J.P. Nathan. A number of species are named after the collections made by him and his family.[1]
Life and work
Nathan came from Kurumbagaram, Nedungadu, near Karaikal. The initial "P." stands for his father's name Prabalanathan, although some sources note it incorrectly as "Peter". He collected insects while still in school and became a government entomologist and later an entomological assistant at the Coimbatore Agricultural College (now the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University). He then worked at Basra, Iraq under the British as a port officer working in quarantine service. He retired voluntarily in 1929 to become a professional insect collector and natural history dealer. He was elected Fellow of the Entomological Society in 1919.[2] Although he specialized mainly in insects he also sold mollusc shells across Europe and North America and numerous species have been described on the basis of specimens collected by him, several named after him, including:[3]
Chersonesometrus nathanorumPrendini & Loria, 2020 (Arachnida: Scorpiones, after P.S. and T.R.S. Nathan)[27]
Alexander named a cranefly Styringomyia susilae after his then infant daughter.[28] After his retirement from active collecting in 1969, his daughter-in-law Theresa Rajabai Susai Nathan (T.R.S. Nathan was married to S.J. Selva Nathan at the Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore) continued the natural history specimen business. The tiger beetle Cicindela nathanae is named after her but not all species described after her have been correctly formed with the feminine form.[29] In 1993 T.R.S. Nathan handed the collecting business to her daughter-in-law Nellie J.P. Nathan and a nephew of T.R.S. Nathan, S.A. Surender also collected specimens. The tiger beetle species Jansenia nathanorum was named for the Nathan family by Fabio Cassola and Karl Werner in 2003.[30] A specimen collected in 1970 indicates that P.S. Nathan collected briefly in Zambia.
Ayyar, T.V.R., Muliyil, J.A. and Susainathan, P. (1918) A Preliminary investigation of "pollu" disease of pepper in north Malabar in 1918. Madras Agric. Year Book, 1920-21 pp. 18–31.
^"List of Fellows of the Entomological Society of London". Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London. 71 (1–2): ix–xxxii. 2009. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.1923.tb03322.x.
^Wagan, M. S.; Kevan, D. K. McE. (1992). "Studies on some Tetrigidae (Orthoptera) from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka". Tropical Zoology. 5 (2): 167–194. doi:10.1080/03946975.1992.10539191.
^Roy, R.; Stiewe, M. B. D. (2016). "Révision du genre afrotropical Calamothespis Werner 1907 (Mantodea : Toxoderinae)". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. Nouvelle Série. 52 (1): 26–48. doi:10.1080/00379271.2016.1190668. S2CID194498316.
^Polhemus, D.A.; Polhemus, J.T. (1988). "The Aphelocheirinae of tropical Asia (Heteroptera: Naucoridae)". Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 36 (2): 167–300.
^Ramamurthy, V.V.; Nathan, Britto P.; Anand, R. K. Anand (1992). "Further taxonomic studies on Myllocerus with new synonymy of Hyperstylus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)". Oriental Insects. 26 (1): 119–152. doi:10.1080/00305316.1992.10432244.
^Borowiec, Lech; Takizawa, Haruo (1991). "Notes on Chrysomelid beetles (Coleoptera) of India and its neighboring areas. Part 10". Japanese Journal of Entomology. 59 (3): 637–654.
^Mason, W. R. M. (1962). "Some New Asiatic Species of Exenterini (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with Remarks on Generic Limits". The Canadian Entomologist. 94 (12): 1273–1296. doi:10.4039/ent941273-12.
^Joseph, A.N.T.; Parui, P. (1976). "New and little-known Indian Asilidae (Diptera) I". Insect Systematics & Evolution. 7 (2): 103–108. doi:10.1163/187631276X00199.
^Cassola, Fabio; Werner, Karl (2003). "Two new Jansenia species from South India". Mitteilungen des Internationalen Entomologischen Vereins. 28 (3–4): 77–92.