ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 
VOL. LXII OCTOBER, 1951 Xo. 8 
Doctor William Procter (1872-1951) 
Doctor William Procter, distinguished scientist, died suddenly 
and unexpectedly in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 19, 1951. 
Doctor Procter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 8, 
1872, the son of Harley Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Sanford 
Procter. His grandfather founded the Procter and Gamble 
Company in 1837. 
Much of Doctor Procter's boyhood was spent in the Berk- 
shires of western Massachusetts. He graduated from Phillips 
Exeter Academy in 1891, and from Yale University with the 
degree of Ph.B. in 1894, having specialized in chemistry and 
business. Between 1895 and 1897 he took an extended trip 
around the World, visiting Japan, China, India, and many other 
countries. He was a graduate student in the Sorbonne (Paris, 
France) in 1896-1897. For the succeeding twenty years he 
was engaged in business, chiefly in the field of railroad organiza- 
tion and securities. Later he became actively associated with, 
and a director of, the Procter and Gamble Company. 
In 1917 Doctor Procter gradually relinquished business and 
began graduate work in zoology at Columbia University, con- 
tinuing until 1920, but never working toward a higher degree. 
His interests were chiefly in genetics, embryology and proto- 
zoology, he being associated with men such as Wilson, Morgan, 
Calkins, Huettner, Sturtevant, and others of the brilliant group 
then in the Department of Zoology at Columbia. It was this 
inspiring experience that influenced Doctor Procter to devote 
the remainder of his life to work in biology. 
Ever since he was a boy of about 15, or in the mid-SO's, the 
Procter family had spent nearly every summer on Mount Desert 
(237) 
QCT8 tflH 
238 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., '51 
Island, Maine, chiefly at Bar Harbor. In 1921 Doctor Procter 
established a research laboratory on the Island, at first in as- 
sociation with others at Salisbury Cove. Various disagreements 
led to his withdrawal from this association and instituting his 
own laboratory on his estate at Corfield, on Frenchman's Bay, 
about a mile north of Bar Harbor. Most of the early work of 
the laboratory was devoted to a study of the rich marine fauna 
of the Island, the results being published in a series of volumes 
mentioned later. Doctor Procter's fine work attracted the staff 
in biology at the University of Montreal, and in 1936 he was 
called to Montreal where he passed an examination and was 
awarded the degree of Doctor of Science. This same year he 
established "The Biological Survey of the Mount Desert Region, 
Incorporated." 
It was in 1918 that the Boston Society of Natural History 
(later the New England Society) selected Mount Desert Island 
for detailed study of the insect fauna, and the curator of the 
collections, Charles W. Johnson, spent a portion of each summer 
on the Island until 1926. In that year, Procter and Johnson 
made elaborate plans for further study, but this was interrupted 
by lohnson's death in 1932. Doctor Procter then entered upon 
his work on the insect fauna of the Island with an unflagging 
interest and vigor. Parts of every year, usually from early May 
into October, were spent at the home at Corfield, and every part 
of the Island, including virtually every square foot, was combed 
for insects. The small station near Salisbury Cove called 
"Penikese" and the main laboratory at Corfield were the bases 
where much work was accomplished, by the running of light 
traps and other methods. As discussed in his publications, 
Doctor Procter constantly changed his light traps as to position, 
and color and intensity of the light, and these yielded a vast 
range of specimens and species. 
Of the series of seven volumes, or parts, published in his 
survey, the first was by the late Charles W. Johnson who 
worked on the insect fauna of the Island. This was largely- 
responsible for diverting Doctor Procter's interests from the 
marine to the terrestrial fauna. It is of interest to note that 
IxiiJ ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 239 
this first volume on the insects of Mount Desert was dedicated 
to the late Professor Charles Henry Fernald, founder of the 
Department of Entomology at the now University of Mas- 
sachusetts, in 1886, who was born on the Island on March 16, 
1838. Parts 2 to 7 of the series were written by Doctor Procter, 
Parts 2 to 5 relating to the marine fauna, Parts 6 and 7 to the 
insects.* 
In Part 7 of this series, Doctor Procter describes the 421 field 
stations that he had established and examined between 1927 and 
June 1945. Following the publication of this concluding volume, 
the study was continued and the number of field stations was 
further increased. In 1946, Doctor Procter had amassed records 
from the Island of no fewer than 349 families, 2,660 genera, 
and 6,578 species and subspecies of Arthropods, all but 200 of 
which were insects. Virtually all of these are represented in his 
personal collection. In this concluding volume on the insects, 
he dedicates the work as follows: "I have listed alphabetically 
the many persons who have shown their interest and kindness 
in giving me help of many kinds. To them I am profoundly 
grateful and, as mentioned elsewhere, I dedicate this volume 
to them as a mark of my appreciation." This list includes some 
79 names. One name that was omitted inadvertently, since he 
was of the greatest help in the preparation of the work and is 
cited hundreds of times throughout the volume, is Doctor A. 
Edmund Brower, of Augusta, Maine. Doctor Brower was 
stationed on Mount Desert in the early and mid-30's and co- 
operated closely with Doctor Proctor both in collecting and in 
identification of the insects, particularly the Lepidoptera, and 
especially the Micros. 
During his life Doctor Procter made many donations and 
contributions to various. causes and to many persons, these never 
being publicized in any manner. Thus, during the difficult years 
* Biological Survey of the Mount Desert Region. Part VI. The 
Insect Fauna, pp. 1-496, map, 11 figs., portrait of C. W. Johnson; 1938. 
( Includes 5,465 species and subspecies. Hexapoda and Arachnida.) The 
Same, Part VII. The Insect Fauna, pp. 1-566, map, 10 figs.; 1946. 
(Includes 6,578 species and subspecies.) 
240 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., '51 
of the recent war he made substantial contributions to the 
Entomological Society of America, which enabled the Society 
to publish their "Annals" of the period with little or no reduc- 
tion in size. He served on the advisory board of the zoology 
department of Columbia University, on the board of the Wistar 
Institute of Anatomy and Biology, as a trustee of the American 
Museum of Natural History, and in several other important 
capacities. Likewise he was a member of many scientific soci- 
eties, both in America and abroad. In later years, and chiefly 
through his personal friendship with Doctor George A. Baitsell, 
of Yale University, he became very much interested in the Society 
of the Sigma Xi, contributing generously to its various Grants- 
in-aid, and particularly to RESA (The Scientific Research 
Society of America). This culminated in the establishment of 
the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, the first 
award of which was made to Doctor Karl T. Compton at 
Cleveland, Ohio, on December 29, 1950. 
Doctor Procter remained a bachelor until he was 38, when 
he married Miss Emily Pearson Bodstein on Feburary 3, 1910. 
Seldom has there been a couple more devoted and appreciative 
of the efforts of the other than Doctor and Mrs. Procter. A 
distinguished musician and French scholar, Mrs. Procter was 
invalided by arthritis for several years before her death at Bar 
Harbor on September 25, 1949. 
Doctor Procter bequeathed his collection of insects, together 
with the cabinets, drawers, books and records appertaining 
thereto, to the University of Massachusetts. It will be main- 
tained as a separate unit as "The William Procter Collection of 
Mount Desert Insects." In his will, Doctor Procter has 
specified that there be no additions made to this collection un- 
less by specimens taken on Mount Desert Island, stating "My 
reason being that its great value is to show a biotic entity, and 
it has taken years of hard work to assemble same, though every 
hour one of pleasure." 
Some of us were privileged to know Doctor Procter well and 
to appreciate his many splendid qualities. He was a most 
amazing combination of an outstanding man of business and 
Ixii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 241 
a keen entomologist. In one moment he might be discussing 
the purchase of the World whale oil supply for his Company, 
while at the next he would be in raptures over the capture of a 
microscopic beetle or other insect new to his collection. His 
knowledge of the habits and habitats of the Mount Desert insects 
was profound. The detailed record of the fauna of his beloved 
Island will long serve as his monument. 
CHARLES P. ALEXANDER 
The Tribal Position of Certain Genera of the 
Pyrgomorphinae (Orthoptera: Acrididae) 
By JAMES A. G. REHN, Curator of Insects, The Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
The author recently completed a monographic analysis of the 
acridoid subfamily Pyrgomorphinae as found in Australia, which 
is to appear as a section of a comprehensive study of the grass- 
hoppers of that continent, prepared at the request of, and to be 
published by, the Scientific and Industrial Research Organiza- 
tion of that Commonwealth. 
In the course of this work, and that on other sections of the 
Acridoidea, it has been found necessary to examine numerous 
non-Australian genera to evaluate the relationships and possible 
origin of genera occurring in Australia. In doing this cases of 
faulty associations made in the past are frequently encountered. 
These are due in some instances to previous authors having 
lacked actual material of relevant genera, or at least of a suf- 
ficient representation to furnish a proper background for general- 
izations, while in other cases errors of judgment or interpretation 
have been responsible for conclusions which no\v prove to be 
unwarranted or unsound. 
The genera placed in the pyrgomorphid "section Poecilocerae," 
or, as I prefer to regard it, the tribe Poekilocerini (Poekilocenis 
being the original spelling of the key genus), by the last critical 
analyst of the subfamily as a whole, Ignacio Bolivar in 1909, 1 
1 Genera Insectorum, Acridiidae, Pyrgomorphinae.