Mini-Biography
John Early is the Manager of Natural History and Curator of Entomology at the Auckland Museum, New Zealand. He originally intended to become a marine biologist but got sidetracked into entomology entirely through serendipity, becoming entranced by flightless diapriids living in rotten kelp on the shoreline. He studied these for his Master of Science degree from the University of Canterbury, graduating in 1977. Lubomir Masner's enthusiastic support for this callow student embarking into unknown taxonomic waters in New Zealand played a significant role in developing a wider interest in the Diapriidae and Scelionidae.While a student he spent two summers in Antarctica and the subantarctic islands and this instilled a love of field biology in wild places and an interest in the biota as a whole. After graduating in 1977 he trained as a secondary school teacher but this experience disabused him of any notion he might have had of inspiring the nation's youth so he took a position as tutor in the Entomology Department at Lincoln University for 13 years before moving to the Auckland Museum in 1992. John's interests are in the rich New Zealand fauna of Proctotrupoidea and Platygastroidea, the biodiversity of terrestrial invertebrates, collection management, and interpretation of the natural world to the public through exhibitions and gallery displays. Over the years he has served his time as Editor of the New Zealand Entomologist and President of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.