Walter David Hunter

Background

Hunter was born at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1875. He was the son of Joseph and Mary Abbey (Crooker) Hunter. His grandfather Hunter, of Scotch-Irish descent, emigrated to the United States in 1825; his mother was of Scotch-English origin.

Education

Hunter entered the preparatory school of the University of Nebraska at the age of fourteen, and graduated in arts in 1895. He and the other children in the family were apparently born naturalists, for they knew all the birds and many of the plants and insects around Lincoln. In the university he studied ornithology and taxidermy, but was soon led into the study of insects. In 1897 received his master's degree.

Career

After graduation, he became an instructor in entomology. On account of lack of sufficient appropriations from the state, instructorships were abolished in 1900, and Hunter became assistant entomologist on the staff of the Iowa Agricultural College Experiment Station, where he served for one year.

During his graduate work at Nebraska he had done some fieldwork for the United States Department of Agriculture, and when, in 1901, Congress made appropriations for the investigation of the cotton boll weevil, Hunter, on account of his former excellent record, was selected for fieldwork. He established a laboratory at Victoria, Tex. , and, with increasing appropriations and an increasing number of assistants, he continued the investigation of this pest until the time of his death. During this period he was in charge of the investigations of all insects affecting cotton. Becoming greatly interested also in medical entomology, he was put in charge of this branch of the federal Bureau's work.

The work upon the cotton boll weevil was of the most intensive character. It is probable that no other single species of insect had been studied as broadly and as carefully before. Had the early recommendations of Hunter and his force been generally adopted in the southwestern states of the cotton belt, the spread of the weevil would have been greatly retarded and an enormous monetary loss would have been prevented.

His early work in Nebraska was concerned largely with the taxonomy of certain Diptera. After he entered the federal service his publications were almost entirely of an economic character. He died suddenly at El Paso, Tex. , two months before the completion of his fiftieth year.

Achievements

• Walter David Hunter is remembered as an entomologist, whose bibliography of the writings contains about one hundred titles.

Works

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  • The Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Tick: With Special Reference to the Problem of Its Control in the Bitter Root Valley in Montana (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Tick: With ...)

  • The Cotton Hopper, or So-Called "Cotton Flea" (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Cotton Hopper, or So-Called "Cotton Flea...)

  • The Principal Cactus Insects Of The United States (1912)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Boll Weevil Problem: With Special Reference To Means Of Reducing Damage (1909)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Use Of Paris Green In Controlling The Cotton Boll Weevil (1904)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Information Concerning The North American Fever Tick: With Notes On Other Species...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Membership

In 1915 he was president of the Entomological Society of Washington, and in 1913 president of the American Association of Economic Entomologists.

Connections

While at Victoria he married, in 1906, Mary P. Smith, daughter of Dr. E. H. Smith of that city.

Father:

Joseph Hunter

Mother:

Mary Abbey (Crooker) Hunter

Spouse:

Mary P. Smith

References

• Who's Who in America, 1922-1923, Vol. 12: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women in the United States