Recollections from childhood with Jan in West Virginia and later collaboration leading to co-authorship in Science

I am one of Jan Washburn’s brothers and I will discuss Jan’s early development as a naturalist and entomologist. Jan was born in Wilmington, DE, but grew up in a small town in WV called Vienna during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Our home was close to diverse habitats including hills and valleys, deciduous forests, open fields both wild and cultivated, streams, and the Ohio River. Jan, neighborhood friends, and I spent a lot of time in these areas, especially in summer when we were “turned loose” by our parents. Having these habitats nearby was important in Jan’s development as a naturalist. In addition to insects, these were great areas to hunt for, and watch spiders, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. It was also in these areas where Jan began his insect collecting, particularly butterflies. He was exposed to butterflies at a very young age because we had framed butterflies around the house that our paternal grandmother had collected. In addition to his collecting, Jan began drawing at an early age and developed into an excellent illustrator and artist. As undergraduates, Jan and I both majored in science-related topics, Jan in biology and I in engineering. Later as graduate students Jan specialized in entomology and I in physical oceanography. Our collaboration arose from a Caltrans-funded project to understand infestations of freeway ice plant by a particular species of scale insect. I will summarize the interdisciplinary approach we used to understand dispersal behavior of this insect.