Ross T. Bell

Ross Taylor Bell (born 23 April 1929) is an American entomologist with particular interest in the invertebrate natural history of Vermont, United States,and carabid beetles. Together with his wife, Joyce Bell, his work at the University of Vermont was largely taxonomic, where they described more than 75% of the rhysodine species known to science. Ross also wrote a number of seminal papers in his chosen field.

Ross Bell was born April 23, 1929 in Champaign, Illinois, to parents Alfred Hannam Bell and Dorothy Bell. He had two sisters - Martha and Enid. The family were keen naturalists, and family vacations included long drives to various locations in the USA where the family would pursue their particular interests in botany, zoology, and geology.

Bell's particular interest in insects began with a childhood gift of an insect collecting kit from his parents. He also received a jar of silk worm larvae, which he reared on mulberry leaves. At age 14, he gained employment at the Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois where he sorted and identified sarcophagids, muscids and calliphorids. The following summer, he took a job with the taxonomic survey, though this turned out to provide him with little scope to develop his skills and interests.

Bell went to high school at the University Laboratory High School in Urbana. He spent his summers at his aunt and uncle's farm in Ohio where, in between farm chores, he would collect and attempt to name insects from the fields and nearby stream.

He spent 1946 to 1949 at the University of Illinois where he gained a BS in zoology. He then went on to gain his MS with a thesis about the Carabidae (Simplicia) of Illinois. In the early 1950s, under the sponsorship of entomologist W.V. Balduf, he completed his doctoral dissertation about the comparative morphology and phylogeny of Adephaga.

Whilst at Illinois, Bell became friends with 'Butterfly' Bob Snetsinger. Through him, Bell developed interests in life history and larval biology. He also became interested in ecology and became president of the department's ecology club.

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