Peter Michael Hammond

Peter Michael Hammond (17 February 1941 – 17 September 2021) was a British entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera (beetles). For many years he was the head of the Coleoptera section at the Natural History Museum, London.

After working for a time in China, Hammond was appointed to his job at the NHM in the 1960s by the museum's then-head Coleopterist Jack Balfour-Browne (1907–2002).^[1] By the late 1960s Hammond was appearing in newspapers as a Museum spokesperson for the Coleoptera section.^[2]

Hammond's special interest area was the Staphylinidae (rove beetles),^[3] but he worked on all families of beetle.^[1]

Hammond, with Jane Marshall, worked on Fritz van Emden's (1898–1958) specimens in the 1970s^[4] and contributed to the Monograph originally instigated by van Emden's research into beetle larvae, published by the Royal Entomological Society in 2019: British Coleoptera Larvae. A guide to the families and major subfamilies, edited by Max Barclay and Beulah Garner.

From 1981, Hammond served as an editor on the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, and contributed book reviews.^[3]

Hammond was known for his talent for surveying areas for beetles, whether researching unpopulated forest areas^[5][6] or suburban spaces, for example using Chinese lanterns and takeaway food containers to entice Oxypoda nigrocincta, Clambus apllidulus and Cossonus linearis during a beetle survey undertaken with the London Wildlife Trust in Hounslow in 1998.^[7]

Because of what was then a museum rule for mandatory retirement at age 60, in 2001 Hammond retired and became a Scientific Associate at the NHM.^[1] He continued to travel, collect specimens, research and publish his work.

The Carabidae beetle species Clinidium hammondi R.T. & J.R.Bell, 1985, was named in honour of Hammond.^[8]

Selected publications

• Hammond, P.M.: Notes on British Staphylinidae. 1. the status of Olophrum nicholsoni Donisthorpe with notes on the other British species of Olophrum (Coleoptera), Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, vol. 106, pp. 165–170 (1971)
• Hammond, P.M.: Notes on British Staphylinidae. 2. on the British species of Platystethus mannerheim, with one species new to Britain, Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, vol. 107, pp. 93–111 (1971)
• Hammond, P.M. and Bacchus, M.E: Atheta (s. str.) strandiella Brundin (Col., Staphylinidae) new to the British Isles, with notes on other British species of the subgenus. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, vol. 107, pp. 153–157 (1972)
• Hammond, P.M.: Notes on British Staphylinidae. 3. The British species of Sepedophilus Gistel (Conosomus auct.)., Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, vol. 108, pp. 130–165 (1973)
• Hammond, P.M: A review of the genus Anotylus C.G. Thomson (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology, Vol. 33, pp. 139–187 (1976)^[9]
• Hammond, P.M.: Wing-folding Mechanisms of Beetles, with Special Reference to Investigations of Adephagan Phylogeny' in T.L. Erwin, G.E. Ball, and D.R. Whitehead, Carabid Beetles: Their Evolution, Natural History, and Classification, pp. 113–180 (1979)
• Hammond, P.M.: Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) in Ireland, 1: Micropeplinae, Proteininae, Omaliinae and Piestinae, The Irish Naturalists' Journal, vol. 20, number 4, pp. 133–140 (1980)^[10]
• Hammond, P.M.; Kitching, Roger L.; Stork, Nigel E.: The Composition and Richness of the Tree-Crown Coleoptera Assemblage in an Australian Subtropical Forest, Ecotropica, vol. 2, pp. 99–108 (1996)^[6]
• Didham, Raphael K.; Hammond, P.M.; Lawton, John H.; Eggleton, Paul and Stork, Nigel E.: Beetle Species Responses to Tropical Forest Fragmentation, Ecological Monographs (Ecological Society of America), Vol. 68, issue 3 (August 1998)^[5]
• Caterino, Michael S.; Shull, Verel L.; Hammond, Peter M.; Vogler, Alfried P.: Basal relationships of Coleoptera inferred from 18S rDNA sequences, Zoologica Scripta, vol. 31, issue 1, pp. 41–49 (2002)^[11]

References