🦋 Observing, collecting, documenting: Lucy Evelyn Cheesman made the field her laboratory
In this previously unseen video, Jean-Yves Meunier, an entomologist and ecologist at the IRD’s IMBE, sheds light on the life and career of Lucy Evelyn Cheesman, a pioneer of scientific exploration.
Through his expert perspective, he puts things into perspective the significance of Lucy Evelyn Cheesman’s work and its lasting contribution to our understanding of living organisms.
From the 1920s onwards, Lucy Evelyn Cheesman led several scientific expeditions in the Pacific and South-East Asia to study the biodiversity of regions that had as yet been little documented. Her research made it possible to collect and describe numerous species, thereby considerably expanding scientific knowledge of insects and tropical ecosystems.
She also became the first female curator of the entomological collection at the Zoological Society of London. Her work contributed to development of natural history collections, which are essential for the study and understanding of biodiversity.
