Painter, Reginald H.

Reginald Painter was born on September 12, 1901, at Brownwood, Texas, and he received a B.A. (1922) and M.A. (1924) from the University of Texas and a Ph. D. from Ohio State University (1926). He immediately joined the faculty at Kansas State University, where he remained for his entire career except for brief periods in Honduras and Guatemala. Painter became widely recognized as the leading authority of plant resistance to insects. He worked cooperatively with plant breeders in the production of sorghum, wheat, and alfalfa varieties resistant to insect pests. He also documented the existence of insect biotypes that could overcome host plant resistance. He is remembered for his authorship of <emph render='italic'>Insect Resistance in Crop Plants</emph>, which was the major synthesis and leading work on the sibject for decades.
Painter also had a strong interest in Bombyliidae, and he and his wife described several new genera and numerous new species from North and Central America, and redescribed many European species. Painter was a fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Gamma Sigma Delta International Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture, He died on December 23, 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Pulled from the Library of Congress Authority record, which cites the 2008 edition of the Encyclopedia of Entomology.

Creator Source: Library of Congress Name Authority File