Odomtologica II (3): 245-249 September I, 1982
OBITUARY
Charles+Francis Byers
A short biography ofC.F. BYERS (bom Nov. 18,1902, Johnstown,Pennsylvania,
USA; deceased Oct. 27, 1981, Williston, Florida, USA; educator and entomologist)
is followed by a list of his odonatological publications (1925-1981).
On October 27, 1981, Professor C. F. Byers
died at a nursing home in Williston, a small town
near Gainesville, Florida after a prolonged
illness. Dr CHARLES FRANCIS BYERS was
born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, November 18,
1902, and attended school there through high
school, where he graduated in 1921. He then went
to the University of Michigan where he received
the A.B., M.S., and lastly the Ph.D. in 1929.
Along the way he studied fora semester in 1924 at
the University of Florida and for the school year
1926-1927 at Cornell University where he did
some work with Prof. James G. Needham in the
Entomology Department. He attended summer
schools at the Marine Biological Stationin Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the
University of Michigan Biological Station at Douglas Lake.
It was while at Cornell that he contributed to the completion of the 1929
'Handbook of the Dragonflies of North America’ by J.G. Needham and H.B.
Heywood. In the preface we read, 'Miss Elsie Broughton helped with the
completion of both drawings and manuscript; and most of the drawings of
were made Mr C. Francis genitalia by Byers. Whole sections of the text were
written the last named.’ Indeed find by two we that the name of C. Francis Byers sections heads the on Argia, Enallagma and Ischnura, while Elsie Broughton's with name appears Aeshna and the Somatochlora.
From Cornell University Dr Byers moved to the University of Florida in the fall of 1927 as Assistant Professor of Biology, where he continued his study of the
Odonata. He took leave in a the year 1928-1929 to return to Michigan to 246 M.J. Westfall
complete his Ph.D. with a thesis on the Odonata of Florida. He continued his research and publishing on the Odonata untiladministrativedutiesoverwhelmed him. In 1947 when I finished my Ph.D. at CornellUniversity, also working with
Prof. Needham, Dr Byers hired me as an assistant professor of Biology with the intent that I would do the work on the OdonataofFlorida which he had dropped.
He was thenHead Professor ofBiological Science, laterbecoming acting Deanof the Graduate School (1951-1952), and then Assistant Dean in charge of Gra- duate Programs of the College of Arts
& Sciences until he left the University of
Florida in 1959. After this hetaught at the
University of Idaho (1959-1960), while at the same time serving as a consultant for the Biological Science Curriculum Study,
Boulder Colorado, sponsored by the
American Institute of Biological Sciences and the National Science Foundation.At
Elimira College in New York he was
Professor of Biology 1960-1968, and chairman of the Division of Natural
Sciences 1960-1966. He was also Deanof the Faculty 1963-1968, as well as Acting
President January-May 1964. He then taught 1968-1969 at Ripon College in
Wisconsin, and finally at Rollings College in Winter Park, Florida before returning to Gainesville in retirement. During his teaching years he taught courses in
General Biology or Zoology, Invertebrate Fig. 2. Dr C.F. Byers, replying to the toast at Zoology, Parasitology, Evolution, Gene- the banquet of the Fourth International tics, and Geography Geology. Symposium of Odonatology, Gainesville,
Many honors were awarded to Dr Florida, August 4, 1977. (Photo: R.
Byers, including a Fulbright Fellowship Rudolph). to India in 1957-1958, where he taught
courses in Evolution and Genetics at Banaras HinduUniversity. While at Cornell
University he held the Heckscher Fellowship, and at the University of Michigan the Carl Braun Fellowship. From the Florida Academy of Science he received a
deliberationof research award and medal. He was asked to participate in the a Education Board in committee on Graduate Studies of the Southern Regional
American Council 1950, and the studies on general education of the on
Education in East Lansing, Michigan 1950-1953. He attended the Harvard
Institute for College and University Administrators in 1965. C. Francis Byers 247
Dr officer in Phi Byers was a member and many honorary societies, including Sigma, Sigma Xi, Gamma Alpha, Delta Sigma Phi, and Beta, Beta, Beta. His professional society memberships included the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (Fellow), American Association of University
Professors (president, Florida chapter 1936-38, 1946-48), Entomological Society of America (Fellow), Florida Academy of Science (charter member), Florida
Entomological Society (president 1930-31), Association of Southeastern
Biologists, and the Athenaeum Club of Florida (president 1931). He is listed in
American Men of Science’, ‘Who’s Who in America’, and ‘Presidentsand Deans of American Colleges and Universities’.
Dr Byers was a co-author of a widely used textbook of general biology and contributed to the development of a number of curricula in general biology, including the Biological Science Curriculum Study (B.S.C.S.). This study resulted in recommendations for major reorganization and revitalization of the
curriculum for which biology secondary and high schools subsequently were adopted nationally, and today this work provides the basis for the biological sciences curriculum taught by many public and private secondary schools.
1 never went on a collecting trip with Dr Byers, but he and fellowentomologists in the Biology Department inspired me and my students to take many trips to
Florida northwest (known as the panhandle of the state), where we discovered new of Odonata for Florida species the list with almost every expedition. Dr
and his had favorite Byers colleagues a collecting area in Liberty County, ‘Camp
This for Torreya’. area was very productive us. We laterextended our collecting to the tip of the panhandle. It was my pleasure to describe Telebasis byersi in
1957, with types from Gainesville. When I told him that I was going to name it in his honor 1 thought that his 1934b paper gave the first reference to the genus in
Florida, but later I learned that E.B. and J.H. Williamson in 1930wrote that they had taken a Telebasis of doubtful species at Palmdale, Florida.
the last of did in Apparently collecting Odonata which Dr Byers was the summer of 1949 when he had a fellowship at the Mountain Lake Biological
Research Station in Virginia. When he returned he asked me to identify the specimens for him, and he then wrote a short paper on them, his last publication on the Odonata, except for the nice review he wrote in 1955for the ‘Manualofthe
Dragonflies of North America’ by Needham and myself. When he left the
U of his Collection niversity Florida, was given to the U niversity and is now a part of the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville. His library and odonate sold correspondence were to the Laboratory of Aquatic Entomology at
Florida A & M University in Tallahassee.
1977 In when we hosted the Fourth InternationalSymposium of Odonatology in Gainesville I invited Dr and Mrs Byers to be our guests at the banquet. I the purchased publisher’s remainder of his 1930 ‘Contribution to the Knowledge of Florida Odonata’ and he autographed copies bought by members at the 248 M.J. Westfall
banquet. In a short speech he remarked that he had never expected to see so many times people at one time who were interested in dragonflies. I saw him only a few
from then until his death. His widow, Jeanette, and daughter, SarahFrances, are
continuing to live at the family home in Gainesville.
NEW ODONATA TAXA DESCRIBED BY DR C.F. BYERS
Coenagrionidae Gomphidae
Enallagma culicinorum 1927b Progomphus dorsopallidus 1934a
= E. anna Williamson 1900 Progomphus alachuensis 1939
Enallagma weewa I927e
ODONATOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DR C.F. BYERS
(1925-1981)
1925 Odonata collected in Cheboygan and Emmet Counties, Michigan. Pap. Mich. Acad. Set 5:
389-398.
1927a An annotated list of the Odonata of Michigan. Occ. Pap. Mas. Zool.. Univ. Mich. 183:1-16.
1927b the North Key to American species of Enallagma with a description of a new species
(Odonata: Zygoptera) Trans. Am. enl. Soc. 53: 249-260.
1927c Notes on some American dragonfly nymphs (Odonata. Anisoptera). JlN. Y. enl. Soc. 35:65-
75,
I927d The nymph of Libellula incesta and a key for the separation of the known nymphs of the
Libellula genus (Odonata). Enl. News 38: 113-115.
I927e Enallagma and Telagrion from western Florida, with a description of a new species. Ann.
ent.enl. Soc. Am. 20: 385-392.
I927f Automobile collecting. Enl. News 38: 319.
1928a Comments on the Odonata recorded in ‘A List of the Insects of New York’. Enl. News 39:
229-230.
1928b Florida dragonflies captured by the automobile. Enl. News 39: 236-239.
1928c The unknown nymphs of North American Odonata. Can. Enl. 60: 4-6.
A 1929 [Sections on Argia, Enallagma, and Ischnura]. In: J.G. Needham & H.B. Heywood,
handbook of the dragonflies of North America, pp, 284-302, 311-342, 342-357. Thomas,
Springfield-Baltimore.
1930 A contribution to the knowledge ofFlorida Odonata. Univ. Fla Pub!, biol. Set Ser. KD: I-
327.
1931a Florida dragonflies. Fla Nat. 4(2): 25-30.
1931b Dixie dragonflies collected during the summer of 1930 (Odonata). Em. News 42: 113-119.
1932 Dragonfly narratives in fact and fiction. Fla Nal. 5(2-3): 21-24.
1934a Progomphus dorsopallidus, a new species from Venezuela (Odonata-Gomphinae). Occ.
Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Mich. 294: 1-5.
1934b Record of Florida dragonflies - I. Enl. News 45: 214-216.
with the 1936a The immature form of Brachymesia gravida, notes on the taxonomy of group
(Odonata: Libellulidae). Enl. News 47: 35-37. 60-64.
1936b Records of Florida dragonflies - 11. Fla Enl. 19: 40-42.
A review of the of the Neurocordulia and Pubis 1937 dragonflies genera Platycordulia, Mist:
Mus. Zool. Univ. Mich. 36; 1-36.
1938 Some dragonflies from the Florida Keys (Odonata). Enl. News 49: 163-165. C. Francis Byers 249
A the the with 1939 study of dragonflies of genus Progomphus (Gomphoides) a description ofa
Proc. new species. Fla Acad. Sci. 4: 19-85.
Notes the 1941 on emergence and life history of the dragonfly Pantala flavescens. Proc. Fla
Acad. Sci. 5: 14-25.
1951 Some notes on the Odonata fauna of Mountain Lake, Virginia. Em. News 62: 164-167.
1955 (Review): Dragonflies of North America, by James G. Needham and Minier J. Westfall, Jr.,
1955. Fla Em. 38: 34-38.
1980 Portrait onp. 245 dated M.J. Westfall Jr.
Department of Zoology
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida 32611, United States