astronomy

Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer

Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer rather than just read about it. In short: Magdalena Kathrina Petronella Smith Meyer (9 October 1931 – 21 October 2004) was a South African acarologist who was regarded as a world authority on plant-feeding mites of agricultural importance and was known as the "mother of red-spider mites of the world". She described more than 700 new species and 25 new genera, mostly of mites of agricultural importance.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Magdalena Kathrina Petronella Smith Meyer (9 October 1931 – 21 October 2004) was a South African acarologist who was regarded as a world authority on plant-feeding mites of agricultural importance and was known as the "mother of red-spider mites of the world". She described more than 700 new species and 25 new genera, mostly of mites of agricultural importance. Meyer was involved in the promotion of biological control of mites using predatory mites, spiders and insects.

Education Magdalena Meyer (also known as Lenie) was born on a farm near Leeudoringstad, South Africa on 9 October 1931. She matriculated from Helpmekaar High School for Girls, Johannesburg in 1948. She enrolled at Potchefstroom University in 1949 where she completed her BSc (cum laude) in Botany and Zoology in 1951; followed by an MSc (cum laude) in Zoology in 1953 and a Higher Diploma in Librarianship (cum laude) in 1958. Her dissertation on prostigmatic mites associated with plants in South Africa was completed in 1959, which earned her a DSc in Zoology.

Career Meyer started working at the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) of the South African Agricultural Research Council (ARC), based in Pretoria. In 1964 she received a bursary from the Canadian Research Council and over the next year she visited several acarologists in Canada, the United States of America and Europe. In 1964 she was appointed manager of the Economic Zoology (Arachnida and Nematology) subdivision at the ARC and in 1970 she became Assistant-Director of the PPRI. In 1989 she was one of the first researchers to be promoted to Specialist Scientist and in 1994, shortly before her retirement, she was appointed Senior Specialist Scientist. Despite being retired, Meyer continued to work as an associate researcher at the PPRI. Meyer supervised 6 MSc students and 7 PhD students during her career and acted as examiner for a further 14 students.

Contributions Meyer was instrumental in the development of acarology in Southern Africa, leading to better international understanding of some of the most economically and agriculturally important agricultural pests that belong to the Spider mite family, Tetranychidae and the flat mites Tenuipalpidae. She described more than 700 new species and 25 new genera of mites, including the genera Capedulia, Coleacarus and Krugeria. In 1959 Meyer established the National Collection of Acari, which is now one of the largest mite collections in the Southern Hemisphere with more than 120,000 specimens, representing more than 47 families, 200 genera, and 1200 species, more than half of which had been collected during her time at the PPRI. Meyer developed several techniques for the collection of mites and made important contributions to their control on various plants, including citrus, cotton, deciduous fruit, grapes, berries, vegetables, tobacco and other field crops, flowers and ornamental plants. She was involved in the dissemination of information on the control of mites and was actively involved in the registration of new miticides and in advising chemical companies on their spraying trials as well as evaluating the results thereof. Meyer made special efforts to promote the biological control of mites using spiders, insects and predatory mites. These predatory mites were collected from several Acacia species. Meyer collaborated with researchers from Costa Rica, Israel and Portugal and helped countries across the world with identification. She also advised on economically important mites on different crops to countries in southern Africa including Angola, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Recognition Meyer was chief editor of the editorial board of the International Journal of Acarology (IJA) until 1997. In 1998 the IJA launched the M K P Meyer fellowship in recognition of her contributions to acarology. The IJA again awarded her for the second time, in appreciation of her contributions to acarology in 2002.

Selected publications Meyer published more than 100 scientific papers including seven memoirs and two handbooks on mites of crops. She developed a checklist that covers the 60 economically important mite pest species in Southern Africa. Amongst other works, Meyer co-contributed to a chapter on Acari in the Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa series:

Smith Meyer, Magdalena K. P.; Loots, G. C. (1978). "Acari". Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa. Monographiae Biologicae. Vol. 31. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 703–718. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-9951-0_19. ISBN 978-94-009-9953-4. ISSN 0077-0639. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help) In 1983 she initiated the first biodiversity survey of mites. From the data collected in the survey she published four papers on the mite fauna of the South African National Parks. She was also senior author of the first checklist of Acari of the Ethiopian region and published articles on mite faunas of Cameroon, the Cape Verde Islands, Costa Rica, Israel, Zimbabwe and Yemen.

Ueckermann, E.A.; Van Harten, A. & Meyer (Smith) M.K.P. "The mites and ticks (Acari) of Yemen: an annotated check-list." in Fauna of Arabia.

References

External links

Publications by Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer Archived 12 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine at WorldCat Identities Publications by M.K.P Smith Meyer at Semantic Scholar Fauna names associated with M.K.P. Smith Meyer at Bionames.org Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria Archived 30 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute ARC National Mite collection

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer

In research: Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2004 deaths, 20th-century South African women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

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Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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