Judith Najt A life dedicated to Collembola and research support for systematics Judith Najt was born in Argen tina de Zoologie of the Paul-Sabatier on 9th January 1937, and passed University in Toulouse, directed by away there on 10th December 2014, Prof. Paul Cassagnau. She was then after spending most of her life in promoted to the grade of Chargé de France. During the last deca des Recherche in 1982. During her time she made an important mark on in Toulouse, Judith continued her collembology as well as on Ento- investigations on the taxonomy of mology at the Muséum national Collembola, but also enlarged the d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN), scientific scope of her studies to the being at the origin of the largest morpho-physiological study of the research team currently working phenomenon of ecomorphosis in on biodiversity in France. Isotomidae. This subject was central The scientific career of Judith Najt to her higher doctoral thesis (Thèse can be divided into four periods. d’État) defended in May 1982. From 1962 to 1973, she worked In 1983, Judith came back to in Argentina in the laboratory of the MNHN in Paris, working in- Prof. Eduardo Rapoport, teaching tensively on the taxonomy and and conducting research in Ento- the diversity of Collembola from mology. She obtained her first thesis various regions of the world, often in Bahia Blanca in 1967, with a in collaboration with Jean-Marc dissertation on “The geology of the Thibaud. During this period, her Malargüe region (Mendoza, Argentina)”, but never worked most significant contributions concerned the faunas of North on this topic thereafter. In 1969 she obtained a position at Korea, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, CONICET, working as a delegate in the Entomological New Caledonia and Australia. In 1995, she succeeded in get- Laboratory of La Plata University. After some early works on ting the support of CNRS to develop a research team with Protura (seven publications) and Diptera (one publication), several entomologists of the Muséum (Équipe postulante 90). her investigations soon focused on the taxonomy of South This team grew up and became an Équipe scientifique associée American Collembola, particularly those of Argentina. (ESA 8043) in 1998, that she led until 2002. In 1973, Judith moved as a research associate to the team of In spite of heavy administrative work, she continued her Prof. Delamare-Deboutteville in Brunoy (France), a labora- taxonomic studies, publishing several papers every year, mostly tory of the MNHN near Paris. During her short stay there, in collaboration with Wanda Weiner. During this period, she she produced important taxonomic contributions on the also took the responsability of a general MNHN programme Neotropical fauna of Collembola, together with more general entitled “Biodiversité terrestre en Nouvelle-Calédonie” from papers in collaboration with Zaher Massoud on secondary 1992 to 2001. This large programme funded fieldwork for a sexual characters, teratology and the breeding techniques of number of researchers on various living groups of this archi- Collembola. pelago. Their results, as well as several taxonomic revisions In 1976, she got a position of research scientist, namely Attaché dealing with the fauna of New Caledonia, were published de Recherche in the CNRS and was assigned to the Laboratoire in three large thematic issues of the Mémoires du Muséum ZOOSYSTEMA • 2017 • 39 (1) © Publications scientifiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. www.zoosystema.com 5 Deharveng L. et al. national d’Histoire naturelle, under the general title “Zoologia petuating the study of Collembola in the MNHN). She also Neocaledonica”, which she co-edited. developed a number of national and international collabora- Judith Najt retired in 2002 and, having established the first tions, often on the long-term, resulting in joint papers listed CNRS-backed unit of the MNHN for years in the field of in her bibliography. She also encouraged several colleagues biodiversity, she obtained Emeritus status the same year. The from other countries to dedicate their research to Collembola, unit she had founded continued to grow, enlarging its scientific providing advice and help. scope under the name : “Origine, Structure et Évolution de The memory of a colourful woman with a strong charac- la Biodiversité” (OSEB), headed by Louis Deharveng, and ter, altruistic, deep-hearted and with penetrating views and a obtaining the status of a Unité mixte de Recherche MNHN- long term vision, remains imprinted in the minds of all those CNRS in 2005. After being taken over by Philippe Grand- fortunate to have known her in person, while her outstanding colas in 2012, the unit received a new contract in 2014 with contribution to one of the less-known groups of Hexapoda CNRS, MNHN, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie and École will long continue to inspire Collembologists. pratique des Hautes Études and was renamed the Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB). With more than 90 permanent scientists, this is today one of the largest Acknowledgements research teams working on systematics and biodiversity ques- José Palacios-Vargas kindly provided two of the photographs tions in France – an achievement that is clearly a tribute to of Judith Najt used in this notice. We thank Mark Judson for the initial tenacity and determination of Judith Najt. style improvment, and two reviewers for helpful comments. After retirement, however, Judith Najt’s scientific activity declined rapidly and in 2007 she was affected ill health. Having no immediate family in France after the death in 1999 of her husband, Jacques Boudinot, she was taken back to Argentina Louis Deharveng by one of her sisters. It is there that she passed away on 10th Institut de Systématique, Évolution et Biodiversité, ISYEB – December 2014. UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Judith Najt showed a remarkable regularity in her scien- Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, tific production throughout her career. The greatest part of case postale 50, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) her 100 published papers deal with Collembolan taxonomy. They concern a large range of families and regions, although Cyrille A. D’Haese Poduromorpha and South America predominate. Particularly MECADEV – UMR 7179 MNHN/CNRS, significant publications in terms of biodiversity are those Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, on the faunas of New Caledonia and North Korea, which case postale 50, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) established these areas as outstanding Collembolan hotspots. Judith Najt worked mostly on regional faunal inventories Philippe Grandcolas and species descriptions, being very efficient in this respect. Jean-Marc Thibaud She left to science a large number of new taxa: one family, Institut de Systématique, Évolution et Biodiversité, ISYEB – 13 genera and 181 species of Collembola, six species of Protura UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, and six species of Diptera. Her descriptions are considered of Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, high quality by collembologists. They are based on detailed case postale 50, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) and thorough morphological observations, in a group where the delimitation of taxa is often difficult. Aside from this Wanda Maria Weiner taxonomic legacy, the most important contribution of Judith Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Najt concerns the morphological expression of ecomorphosis, Polish Academy of Sciences, a stage in the life of some Collembola that shows regression Slawkowska 17 - Pl 31-016 Kraków (Poland) of the mouthparts and considerable morphological changes. In 11 papers, she described in detail the variety of patterns Deharveng L., D’Haese C. A., Grandcolas P., Thibaud J.-M. & Weiner W. M. observed in different species, mostly in Isotomidae, demon- 2017. — Judith Najt. A life dedicated to Collembola and research support strating that the phenomenon is widely distributed in the for systematics. Zoosystema 39 (1): 5-14. https://doi.org/10.5252/z2017n1a1 family, but largely independent of the phylogenetic position of the species, by showing that species affected by obligate urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AF3E7906-0B5E-4007-93E9-01157A2538E7 ecomorphosis can be closely related to species where it is not expressed at all. Judith Najt only supervised a few PhD students, but showed a full dedication to them. It was for her an opportunity to en- large her field of research to poorly known ecosystems (e.g., the canopy arthropods of New Caledonia, with Eric Guilbert) and to different evolutionary approaches (the phylogeny of Poduromorpha, with Cyrille D’Haese, who is currently per- 6 ZOOSYSTEMA • 2017 • 39 (1) Tribute to Judith Najt APPENDICES Appendix 1. — Judith Najt’s publications. 1963 1970 RAPOPORT E. H. & NAJT J. 1963. — Variación estacional de la micro- NAJT J. 1970. — Setanodosa peruensis Winter, nueva cita para la fauna edáfica en la zona semiárida de Bahía Blanca, Conferencia fauna Argentina (Insecta: Collembola, Neanuridae). Revista de Latinoamericana. Estudio Regiones Áridas. Unesco, Buenos Aires. la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 32 (1-4): 153-155. NAJT J. & VIDAL SARMIenTO J. 1970. — Aportes al conocimiento de 1965 los Proturos de la Argentina. I. (Insecta). Physis 29 (69): 317-321. NAJT J. & RAPOPORT E. H. 1965. — Sobre algunos Colémbolos (Symphypleona) de Argentina. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica 1971 Argentina 27 (1-4): 33-45. NAJT J. 1971. — Una nueva especie de Neelidae de la República Argentina (Insecta: Collembola). Revista de la Sociedad Ento- 1966 mológica Argentina 33 (1-4): 121-123. NAJT J. 1971. — Colémbolos Symphypleona neotropicales. III. RAPOPORT E. H. & NAJT J. 1966. — Ecología de los microartródos Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 33 (1-4): 43-47. en suelos gley y solonchak de Bahia Blanca, Argentina. Revue NAJT J. & VIDAL SARMIenTO J. 1971. — Sobre la presencia de d’Écologie et de Biologie du Sol 3 (4): 521-546. Protentomidae en la Argentina (Insecta: Protura).