Peter_Michael_Hammond
Peter Michael Hammond
British entomologist (1941–2021)
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]