Richard Dow.
The Scientific Work of Albert Pitts Morse.
Psyche 44:1-11, 1937.

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PSYCHE
-
VOL. XLIV
MARCH - JUNE, 1937
THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF ALBERT PITTS MORSE New England Museum of Natural History
Albert Pitts Morse, best known for his work on the Orthoptera of New England, was born in Sherborn, Massa- chusetts, on February 10,1863. He was a direct descendant of Samuel Morse of Dedham, whose son Daniel became one of the incorporators of the town of Sherborn in 1674. His father, Leonard Townsend Morse, was prominent in town affairs for many years.
As a boy, Mr. Morse attended the local schools, graduating from the Sawin Academy of Sherborn in 1879. He was
unfortunately prevented from acquiring additional schooling by lack of robust health and the need of his services at home. Early attracted by the beauty of nature and endowed with an inquiring mind, he began to collect specimens, study taxi- dermy, and become acquainted with the wild life in his vicinity, a district rich in natural resources. He was en- couraged and aided in these pursuits by several local nat- uralists and collectors, among whom should be mentioned Amory L. Babcock and Edgar J. Smith of Sherborn, and William Edwards of South Natick.
At the age of 23 he abandoned farming as a livelihood and took up draughting, a vocation which he followed for several years. After the death of his parents in 1886 and 1888, he accepted a position as assistant in the Zoological Depart- ment of Wellesley College, with which institution he was connected in different capacities for more than 45 years (until 1933). As collector and instructor, he served the students and teachers in various ways, developed the mu-



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2 Psyche [March- June
seum, and lectured on elementary and systematic zoology and entomology. During the first part of this period he attended the summer school of the Marine Biological Labo- ratory at Woods Hole, took a long summer course in entomology at Cornell University under Professor J. H. Comstock, and made extensive collections of New England insects, paying particular attention to the Orthoptera and Odonata, in which orders he discovered and described many new species.
In 1893 Mr. Morse married Miss Annie McGill of Dover. They lived in Sherborn until 1900, and then moved to Wellesley.
In 1897, with the encouragement of Mr. S. H. Scudder, Mr. Morse undertook a summer's trip to the Pacific Coast to collect the Orthoptera of that region. He returned with several thousand specimens including representatives of many new species most of which were described by Mr. Scudder.
In 1901, at the request of Professor Alpheus Hyatt, he reorganized the instruction in zoology of the Teachers' School of Science of the Boston Society of Natural History, combining a series of field trips each spring and fall with a winter term of laboratory work, in a four year course. This was successfully conducted for two periods of four years, each of which included a year of entomology. The purpose of these lessons was to equip the teacher of biology in sec- ondary schools with a practical as well as theoretical knowl- edge of the subject. Their success was attested by the numbers which attended and the affection and loyalty of the students.
In 1903 and again in 1905, Mr. Morse was appointed Research Assistant by the Carnegie Institution of Washing- ton and awarded a fund to be expended in the study of the Orthoptera of the southern United States. With this assist- ance he made two field trips covering the region from Vir- ginia to Texas, as a result of which he wrote two reports on the grasshopper fauna and its ecology.
During a portion of the summer vacations from 1909 to 1912, Mr. Morse taught natural history to the boys, girls, and teachers of Woodstock, Vermont, under the patronage of Miss Elizabeth Billings of that town, and then, at her sug-



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19371 A. P. Morse 5
gestion and with her support, devoted his spare time for several seasons to the preparation of an excellent mono- graph on the New England Orthoptera. This volume of 350 pages was published by the Boston Society of Natural His- tory in 1920.
In January, 1911, Mr. Morse became connected with the Peabody Museum of Salem, at first in charge of insects only, and later (December of the same year) as Curator of Nat- ural History, though devoting only part of his time to that institution until 1926. In 1920 he spent a month in field work on the Orthoptera of Maine, subsequently preparing a report on this subject for the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. From 1919 to 1923, at least a part of his summer vacation was spent, mainly in Nebraska, in a study of the food habits of grasshoppers with reference to their attacks on binder-twine. In 1926 he became a trustee of the Ropes Memorial of Salem, serving on the committee on grounds and as chairman of the committee on botanical lectures, which during his incumbency were largely arranged by him. In 1934 his health began to fail, and after February, 1935, he was forced to give up his regular work at the Peabody Museum. His death occurred at Wellesley on April 29,1936. He is survived by his wife, two children, and four grand- children.
Mr. Morse was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Entomological So- ciety of America, and a member of the following organiza- tions : the Boston Society of Natural History, Morse Science Club of Salem (twice President), American Association of Economic Entomologists, Cambridge Entomological Club (President 1898, 1914, 1923, 1933-34), American Ornitholo- gists' Union, Essex County Ornithological Club (Vice- president from its inception until 1934, then President until his death), Massachusetts Audubon Society, New England Bird-banding Association, Nuttall Ornithological Club, American Fern Society, New England Botanical Club (Vice- president 1928-1931), and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Mr. Morse's private collection of insects, which contained more than fifty thousand specimens and included many types, was acquired by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at



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6 Psyche [March- June
Harvard College during the academic year 1920-21. The
museums at Boston and Salem also possess many specimens which he collected personally. Some of his material bears one or more of the following printed labels : Coll. A. P. M. Essex Co. Coll. P. M.
Lot Lot Lot
No. No.
The numbers to be found on the first of these labels are explained in a manuscript notebook at the Museum of Com- parative Zoology. The key to those on the second and third labels is contained in another notebook at the Peabody . Museum of Salem. The data for all of the lots is available at both of the above museums, and also at the Boston Society of Natural History. It should be noted that these labels sometimes indicate only the authority who determined the material, and that the Essex County label does not neces- sarily mean that the specimen with which it is pinned was collected in that locality.
Mr. Morse was above all a lover of nature with a remark- able knowledge of natural history. The members of the Cambridge Entomological Club, at whose meetings he was a constant and welcome attendant, greatly miss his presence and his interesting, often humorous, contributions. He was an accurate observer and meticulous in attention to detail. Few men with as little formal training are able to command so much respect for their scientific work. The following bibliography contains most of Mr. Morse's published writings. It does not include the articles which he contributed to newspapers, or a record of the many notes and exhibits which he presented at meetings of the Cam- bridge Entomological Club. The latter may be found in various issues of PSYCHE.
[Letter concerning the orchid fly.]
Insect Life 2: 250.
1890.
[Letter concerning orchid pests.]
Insect Life 3 : 22. 1890.
A suggestion to lepidopterists. Ent. News 3: 121-122. 1892.
A melanistic locust. Psyche 6 : 401-402. 1893. A new species of Stenobothrus from Connecticut, with



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19371 A. P. Morse 7
remarks on other New England species. Psyche 6 : 477-479, figs. 1-6. 1893.
Wing-length in some New England Acrididse. Psyche 7 : 13-14. 1894 (mailed in December, 1893). Ibid.: 53-55. 1894.
A preliminary list of the Acrididse of New England. Psyche 7 : 102-108. 1894.
Notes on the Orthoptera of Penikese and Cuttyhunk. Psyche 7 : 179-180. 1894.
Notes on the Acrididse of New England. 1. [Tettiginae.] Psyche 7: 147-154,163-167, pi. 6. 1894.
On the use of bisulphide. Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. 2: 191. 1894.
Spharagemon : a study of the New England species. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 26: 220-240, figs. 1-9. 1894. [Review of preceding article.]
Psyche 7: 138, figs. 1-9.
1894.
New North American Odonata. Psyche 7: 207-211, 274- 275. 1895.
Revision of the species of Spharagemon. Psyche 7: 287-299, figs. 1-6. 1895.
Enallagma pictum Morse. Psyche 7 : 307. 1895. New North American Tettiginse. 1. Journ. N. Y. Ent. SOC. 3 : 14-16. 1895.
New North American Tettiginse. 2. Journ. N. Y. Ent. SOC. 3 : 107-109. 1895.
Notes on the Acrididse of New England. 2. Tryxalinae. Psyche 7: 323-327, 342-344, 382-384, 402-403, 407-411, 419- 422, 443-445, pi. 7. 1896.
Some notes on locust stridulation. Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. 4: 16-20. 1896.
Both sides of butterflies. Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. 4: 20-22. 1896.
Illustrations of North American Tettiginse. Journ. N. Y. Ent. SOC. 4: 49, pi. 2.
1896.
Notes on New England Acrididse. 3. Oedipodinae. Psyche 8: 6-8, 35-37, 50-51, 64-66, 80-82, 87-89, 111-114, pi. 2. 1897. Birds. In A history of Dover, Massachusetts [etc.] by Frank Smith : 336-348. Dover, Mass. 1897. List of birds of Dover. [Reprint of preceding article.] pp. [i-ii], 1-13. 1897.




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8 Psyche [March- June
Annotated list of birds of Wellesley and vicinity, com- prising the land-birds and most of the inland water-fowl of eastern Massachusetts. pp. 1-56, frontispiece. Wellesley, Mass. 1897.
Pacific Coast collecting. Psyche 8 : 160-167,174-177. 1898. Notes on New England Acridiidse. 4. Acridiinse. Psyche 8: 247-248, 255-260, 269-273, 279-282, 292-296, PI. 7. 1898. The distribution of the New England locusts. Psyche 8: 315-323, PI. 8. 1899.
New North American Tettiginse. 3. Journ. N. Y. Ent. SOC. 7: 198-201. 1899.
A new method of pressing plants. Plant World 2 : 114-115. 1899.
Subfam. Tettiginse. Biol. Centrali-Amer., Insecta, Orth. 2: 3-16, 6 figs. 1900. Ibid. : 17-19, 2 figs. 1901. Variation in Tridactylus. Psyche 9: 197-199, figs. 1-5. 1901.
[Translation of Ebauche sur les mwurs des fourmis de 17Am&ique du Nord by Auguste Fore1 (Riv. di Scien. Biol. 2 : 180-192. 1900.) .] Psyche 9 : 231-239, 243-245. 1901. New North American Orthoptera. Can. Ent. 33 : 129-131. 1901.
The Xiphidiini of the Pacific Coast. Can. Ent. 33 : 201-205. 1901.
A new Xiphidium from Florida. Can. Ent. 33 : 236. 1901. Dichopetala brevicauda-a correction. Psyche 9 : 380-381. 1902.
[Review of A nature 'wooing at Ormond by the sea by W. S. Blatchley.] Psyche 10: 43. 1903.
New Orthoptera from Nevada. Psyche 10 : 115-116. 1903. Reprinted in Invertebrata Pacifica 1 : 14-16. 1903.
Amory Leland Babcock. Psyche 10 : 187. 1903 [1904]. New Acridiids~ from the southeastern states. Psyche 11: 7-13. 1904.
[Review of The Orthoptera of Indiana by W. S. Blatchley.] Psyche 11 : 23-24. 1904.
A faunal and floral tabulation-scheme.
Psyche 11 : 25-28,
pi. 4. 1904.
Diestrammena unicolor in North America. Psyche 11 : 80. 1904.




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19371 A. P. Morse 9
Researches on North American Acridiidse. Carnegie In- stitution of Wash., Publ. 18 : 1-55, figs. 1-13, pis. 1-8. 1904. Some Bahama Orthoptera. Psyche 12 : 19-24. 1905. New Acridiidse from the southern states. Psyche 13 : 119- 122. 1906.
Melanoplus viridipes in New England. Psyche 13: 135. 1906.
Nemo bias palustris Blatchley. Psyche 13 : 158. 1906. The ecological relations of the Orthoptera in the Porcupine Mountains, Michigan. Rept. State Board of Geol. Survey of Michigan for 1905 : 68-72. 1906.
Paratylotropidia beutenmuelleri sp. nov. Psyche 14 : 14. 1907.
Podisma australis nom. nov. Psyche 14 : 57. 1907. Further researches on North American Acridiidae. Car- negie Institution of Wash., Publ. 68 : 1-54, fig. l, frontispiece, pis. 1-9. 1907.
Tettigidean notes, and a new species. Psyche 15 : 25. 1908. . Melanoplus harrisii n. sp. Psyche 16: 12. 1909. Report on the Isle Royale Orthoptera of the 1905 expedi- tion. An Ecological Survey of Isle Royale, Lake Superior, published as a part of the Rept. of the Board of Geol. Survey of Mich. for 1908 : 299-303. 1909.
A hopperdozer for rough ground. Psyche 17 : 79-81, fig. 1. 1910.
Lucilia sericata as a household pest. Psyche 18 : 89-92, fig. 1. 1911.
The orthopterological work of Mr. S. H. Scudder, with personal reminiscences. Psyche 18 : 187-192. 1911. A pocket list of the birds of eastern Massachusetts with especial reference to Essex County. pp. 1-92 + 13 (chart), frontispiece. Salem, Mass. 1912.
Leptum emarginata in New England. Psyche 22: 212. 1915 [1916].
[With Morgan Hebard as joint author.] Fixation of single type (lectotypic) specimens of species of American Orthoptera. Division 3. Species of North American Orthop- tera described by Albert Pitts Morse. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 67 : 96-106. 1915.
A New England orthopteran adventive. Psyche 23: 178- 180. 1916 [1917].




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[Review of The Blattidce of North America, north of the Mexican boundary by Morgan Hebard.] Ent. News 28 : 430- 431. 1917.
List of the water-color drawings of fungi by George E. Morris in the Peabody Museum of Salem. pp. 1-70, frontis- piece (portrait). Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass. 1918. Amaranthus Powellii and Digitaria lanata in New Eng- land. Rhodora 20 : 203. 1918 [Iglg].
New records of Orthoptera in New England. Psyche 26: 16-18. 1919.
A list of the Orthoptera of New England. Psyche 26: 21-39. 1919.
Manual of the Orthoptera of New England, including the locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and their allies. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 35: 197-556, figs. 1-99, pis. 10-29. 1920. At a food-shelf. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 2: 12-14. 1920 [1921].
Sympetrum corrupturn in Massachusetts. Psyche 28: 7. 1921.
Monec'phora bicincta (Say) in New England. Psyche 28 : 27-28. 1921.
Orthoptera of Maine. Grasshoppers and related insects. Bull. Me. Agric. Exper. Sta. 296 : [i-ii], 1-36, figs. 1-25. 1921. Grasshoppers and related insects. pp. 1-6. [Circular Me. Agric. Exper. Sta. 541. 1921.1
A sheld duck (Tadorna tadorna L.) from Essex County, Mass. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 3 : 68, 1 pi. 1921 [1922]. Franklin's gull in New England. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 3 : 69. 1921 [1922].
The seal of the Cambridge Entomological Club. Psyche
29 : 42. 1922.
The European house cricket ; hearth cricket. Psyche 29 :
225. 1922 [1923].
Another Essex County record for the blue-gray gnat- catcher.
Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 5 : 25. 1923 [1924]. Lepidium latifolium in New England.
Rhodora 26: 197-
198. 1924.
Some rarities from Essex County, Mass. Psyche 32 : 298. 1925 [1926].
Two vagrant grasshoppers and a moth.
Psyche 33: 53.
1926.




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19371 A. P. Morse 11
Protective tubes for birdskins. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 8 : 57-59. 1926 [l927].
An interesting butterfly capture. Psyche 34: 10. 1927. Another vagrant grasshopper. Psyche 34 : 134. 1927. "Data is" or "data are": which? Science n.s. 65: 355. 1927.
The way of a snake with a gopher. Copeia 164: 71-72. 1927.
John Robinson, botanist, of Salem, Massachusetts. Rhodora 31 : 245-254, 1 pi. (portrait). 1929. Grasshoppers vs. salt.
Journ. Econ. Ent. 23: 465. 1930.
A window-print. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith. Club 11 : 74, 1 pi. 1929 [1930].
The American lotus at West Peabody. Massachusetts. Rhodora 33 : 230. 1931.
The insect collections of a public museum. Psyche 41 : 158- 163. 1934.
Another kingfisher and a goldfish. Bull. Essex Co. Ornith.. Club 16: 18. 1934 [1935].
[Bibliography of the scientific writings of E. S. Morse in Biographical memoir of Edward Sylvester Morse, 1838- 1925 by L. 0. Howard.] National Acad. Sci., Biogr. Mem. 17 (1) : 20-29. 1935.




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