Peter W. Price: On the Trans-Siberian Railroad, Almost Everything Went Wrong

Marlin E. Rice is a senior research manager with DuPont Pioneer in Johnston, Iowa. He is a Fellow, Honorary Member, and past President of the Entomological Society of America. Peter W. Price is Regents’ Professor Emeritus at Northern Arizona University and author of the classic textbook Insect Ecology . He was born 14 miles south of London in Carshalton Beeches in Surrey, England, on 17 April 1938 and attended Stanley Park Primary School and Sutton County Grammar School. Boyhood activities included Boy Scouts and natural history, with a preference for plants. In secondary school, he was a member of the soccer, boxing, and athletics teams. Each summer, his family camped near the north Devon coast on the southwest English peninsula. He served two years in the Royal Air Force as a radar technician in West Germany. Price earned his B.S. Honors (1962, Forestry) from University College of North Wales and his M.S. (1964, Forest Entomology) from the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He was then employed in the Canadian Forest Service as a research entomologist. He obtained his Ph.D. (1970, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) from Cornell University with a research focus on the coexistence of parasitoids on the Swaine jack pine sawfly. Following his Ph.D., Price was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, where research developed into the study of three trophic-level interactions between natural enemies, insect herbivores, and plants. In 1979, he joined the Museum of Northern Arizona as a research ecologist. The following year, he accepted a professorship in the Department of Biology, Northern Arizona University, where he retired in 2002. He published more than 200 research papers, with the most cited being his 1980 paper co-authored with his graduate students, “Interactions Among Three Trophic Levels,” which has been cited more than 1,900 times. Peter Price, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Northern Arizona University, 2015. Price's field research concentrated on insect ecology: plant and herbivore interactions, multiple trophic-level interactions, population dynamics, and the distribution and abundance of insects. He focused particularly on the ecology and long-term population dynamics of galling sawflies. He hypothesized that evolved characters of organisms, such as morphology, behavior, and life history, strongly influence ecological relationships—a concept captured in his book, Macroevolutionary Theory on Macroecological Patterns . Price also authored Evolutionary Biology of Parasites and Biological Evolution , co-authored Insect Ecology: Behavior, Populations and Communities , and co-edited Evolutionary Strategies of Parasitic Insects and Mites, A New Ecology , and Plant-Animal Interactions . He has served on the Archbold Biological Station Scientific Advisory Board and has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. In 1993, the Entomological Society of America gave Price the Founders’ Memorial Award for honoring Curtis P. Clausen. This interview initially occurred in Portland, Oregon, on 17 November 2014. It was concluded by telephone on 12 August 2015; Price was 77 years old. Rice: I appreciate the time, Peter, that you have taken to do this interview . Price : Yes, and I think you're doing an important job actually. Personalizing individuals that people know of, but don't necessarily have any feelings for their interests or even their accomplishments, perhaps. Let's get right into it. Who was the person or what was the event that first motivated you to pursue entomology? Well, I went to university to study forestry, straight after doing my military service in the Air Force, and my first course was forest entomology, among others, and there was a Mr. Hobart, who was the lecturer. He was a very good lecturer, very knowledgeable, and we went on field trips and I just loved digging bark beetles and cerambycids out of wood and being able to pin them and stick them into a collection. So I really was immediately impressed with this kind of activity. Then I did a lot of hiking in the Welsh Mountains in Snowdonia and I happened to find a beautiful beetle, it was a chrysomelid, which had deep red and blue iridescent stripes on it. I took it to this Mr. Hobart and he identified it as Chrysomela serialis— it was a rare beetle. So you still remember the scientific name after all these years? Oh yes, yes. Because it was the beginning of my insect collection. He said to me, “Well, I’d really like this for our collection,” and I suddenly thought, “Well Mr. Hobart, I think I’m starting my own collection.” [ Laughs .] That was the centerpiece of my collection, which I still have. It's very ratty now, but I collected beetles avidly for the next four years or so. That really got me into entomology and I like beetles particularly. You mentioned the Air Force. You are a native of the United Kingdom . Right. You were conscripted into the military? Yes, there was conscription up until 1962. I went in 1957 as an 18-year-old, so I served my queen and country for two years. I was posted to Germany and I wasn't interested in entomology by then, because this was before I went to university. I was still interested in nature and I ran a lot in the forest all around this radar station. And I looked for plants and animals and things and I had a long-term interest in botany. My father was a keen gardener; he knew Latin binomials of plants. I learned Latin binomials early on in my youth. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, so we went to Kew Gardens and I saw all these wonderful plants including Victoria regia—you know, that huge tropical water-lily? Yes, the one you can stand on? Yes, the big leaves, and I finally saw them in Amazonia much, much later. I got really fascinated by plants, and this coupled with insects—herbivorous insects—got me into plant-herbivore interactions later in my career, which has been a wonderful field because it covers agricultural entomology, forest entomology, and horticultural entomology. Peter Price, Royal Air Force technician, 1957. You mentioned university and you did your undergraduate degree in Wales . Yes. University College of North Wales; it's part of the University of Wales, which had campuses in Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth, and Bangor. Bangor was the nicest, I think, because Snowdonia was just inland, with wonderful hiking, and the highest mountain was Snowdon at 3,600 feet. Not very high! Now I live twice as high as that in Flagstaff [Arizona], which is at 7,000 feet. [ Laughs .] But Snowdon rose from sea level, practically, and winds were coming the so you up there you got in a It was but I loved it. You then went to the University of New Brunswick in and later at Cornell University for your you have any in graduate for it I was a more by then because I had two years in the Then I did a degree at the University of New Brunswick and then the Canadian Forest Service for two and I was years by then, so I was than my And that was good . I think I was to with And for the first time, Cornell strongly like and and and until then, in was you a lot of which you But it wasn't It wasn't the of and what and of or even the of So Cornell was a wonderful to It really my from a forest entomologist. I don't to forest are wonderful people in that in got their necessarily from their Who was your at wonderful because he gave He was the first person from I and ecology He gave out the and he really the In he had graduate and we the our for next and our from the were very good for and even for the of you In the he also with graduate students, and I to So I got my from and I and I employed his in my own He was recognized in ecology but so as an because he was an but then he was at and he into an insect ecologist. He have impressed the with his interest in because and of course on so he was at the yes, I was very because I up at Cornell I to to where there was an forest but he was to a in the Canadian so I wasn't to so I up at [ Laughs .] I was really It was one of these in life where you don't have much and you and think, my I was that happened to the I It's a you where you have up taken the I had two job I my The Canadian Forest Service was which was for me, and I have into forest or forest entomology, but I was much on than I was on I took the job in entomology and went and parasitoids in on the jack pine sawfly. You have published a on insects. was the Well, there were a lot of you are in plant-herbivore interactions, the between the plant and the insect is the is the into the the you where the to the In the we , was and then you the in the You the preference for plant and so this , which had been in the But we that these were at This preference and was and a very important of our In to these were so you you them , you get really I my very was to find a where you get you get like an which is really [ Laughs .] In it's as because on a and the But these were very is that the is the you can is that that My in looked at the of and a that the were to and people looked at the in to and that the more the were the of this so we had a for plant and an The we get was to find a on the because we knew the the saw , which is the and then an so was a from the were able to the of a we knew where the were from but we identified a [ Laughs .] don't that [ Laughs .] That for people to . Right. Yes. I’d them You have one of the but also the [ Laughs .] I think that is It's the one that has had the most three trophic-level interactions That because I had graduate at the University of Illinois, and the for research from the was So was to get that kind of [ Laughs .] and I “Well, got to find among all our A later we on three trophic-level the and the natural was parasitoids or of herbivore or to a which was and that we had this we to a which the of Ecology and It was a because we more or from what was the and we up with a paper that has the paper most three or I and it had been cited just before our interview . it an . it the paper or paper that was your Well, for my Ph.D. I had on the among because the of sawflies. and I were a and then that to a were by that And I even that of the were to that so were among And this is very and that paper in paper a lot of them from it or [ because the study of among was developed at all in I was interested in ecology for that My had me, I’m on I to study So that was of and so I got to on my at He me to all this huge of Oh my I to this but I did it. it for my I do the but I knew the and and it into this So the paper is one of my as I the with my graduate It was a for one of the in the you this to you don't to but you and you from it because it the of your research . So this was I at and that was of the of like were on this but I think was the year, because and was which was just Ecology , but by And published his paper in the Ecology , which I think was on of and early in the year, because of the up in the ecology . Yes. He and I a so he had a influence on it on the of and research in a , Insect which of my to a classic in entomology. you to the Well, it was because he was so good I he an insect ecology because one in He wasn't keen on He papers, he big ecological of I knew he wasn't to a book, so I to it in his I went to the University of Illinois, I in insect ecology in and my been a because I out a I I’m to this into a book, and I just my I four years and then it was published in That was the first then two more up to Now published a people think it's a it's a because I as a for Insect Ecology: Behavior, Populations and Communities . He was at University of the had published and his was so I his in the in our on in I was more to think in of by the of a lot of from and up the and he as an important had to or but after had he of a in the so I to with to his to with the Three of students, to and an concept to have of and to them the . Right. A textbook of and But the wonderful are so and we and is so and you can with people you with because people [ and I think a wonderful and one of the things being in being an [ Laughs .] It's really You can around the and is very You mentioned You as a in the of were you doing Well, the had a you three you to there and the to a and at the University of the in had me to in I had on the because we were all to the first in which is in I’d been to so I was the got to you on the did you the Yes, in was the to It was three and I was in with that was interested the so I out a and this was all by in I to on the because I it It was I’d to I’d of the of the So there were 12 people that on that and it was a was one was one one one one I was a and a as I this is [ Laughs .] I in and then I went to the University of I knew the people there and then I went to which was by in the I had of I was to and with graduate students, which I I also was interested in a of the of galling around the so I I’d do an in a the is a so it was a kind of to that on the coast of is in the from the coast to the and I went right up the coast into into the by the just south of And we did a study on a , that a It was a wonderful And that was the of the in and I in this but to a on the next and there was a big in and the [ Laughs .] It was an because was and were a and the for a was because the of the country looked really but it out as as me and has a to . [ Laughs .] I think it was the because went This was just after the of the in and it was was and in these were and we got on the and the were all were on the around a of And had this [ his up to the of the but had and two [ Laughs .] So we were and we had been to and and things like of the for the was with into was one and were that and so people were to get in and were to get in and were out the [ Laughs So we had to on the You get one and and that was at and were a things that went But we were 12 people and we were and it all so it was a wonderful it took three to get to the was by the you because you your and research . [ Laughs .] Well, we did the which was after we took a on which was and then of went on to three on the and from which was the that had to people got the at and the [ Laughs .] really also in there had been was at the of up on the and it had been by of the The had and so were their own by up in all their and a of our people had been to to to so we them as as we got to and of their This was was that the first we I got but a of had out of the my I was next to a who was a and he was at them to which family [ Laughs .] were all these of things Price a he on the you the I That was all there and I’m that we all a lot of in our the I I that on the was a and that at your their to the to by . there were who to get into our so we I the on one and he got his I have it. I know that I the a [ Laughs .] the entomology in of the was to a after from their That have been It and the like to That was a very and kind of So as as you have a people to in and That was a And we really got on with the of the I them and is a that you have a and that you to with your entomology and that it I in the Royal Air Force. That was a so I up a lot of Then I went to and I was there four on the country and we were and teams. The after the was to to a and In north Wales, where I had a just for like and one That was a very I have my my is It's but I it a good has it that you a and . I but a and I a in who it. out in and went to the coast and the huge and beautiful at highest in the up to Park and to the Following we the between and to Victoria at the of and we to and the and then to This was a to a in got really which very for the that we and two of the three had a good that to a military so he was very to get out of were the was the plants. are such plants. The and plants were just I think the on the up or It was you any that for Well, there were of around the around we into a that to and as do their [ Laughs .] That was a but that out all of the things I saw was a and you any of I have them but I have them . I to the first I was in I them around to the in my entomology A lot of them them which a the and the of a . [ Laughs .] It's and a I the I was with my to a with just a me and a lot of the went my and into the I like so that the You a professorship at the University of to a research at the Museum of Northern this That was a for [ Laughs .] was very good were a lot of and I was good graduate students, so I had the University of my and I was of and around with and good and So this from the Museum of Northern Arizona to a of and to an ecology research I out to Flagstaff and it was a very My and I had two were and so we it was an to them we know was that the was a of of a was and It was a very there was a in the and the of the or after I all of the were to as as So I went to Northern Arizona knew you have a And a of I had an was a and the of the to up a of one for me and one for So we got into the Department of Biology the kind there wasn't a So I was very I went to the Museum of Northern I these galling right on the and it being the for on these sawflies. were four and I got a of That was as Price for insect on he as part of a the by this is a but what is your in entomology? you the Well, I think digging into insect life and really the insect and to any kind of is you can this to So this one , is the into for the in and we it in the of galling sawflies. are but we And the entomology is got all these to this huge that you know, these like and don't have at [ Laughs .] also have the where you can get a of so there is a huge to insects. are big so you can them and are for so to study entomology. get of really Let's to your the long-term of your It's to know what kind of influence have because people don't to [ Laughs .] But I think the Insect Ecology years now, it was first I think the has to that are very one And then I’d like to think that the you know these things are to but I think “Interactions Among Three Trophic is to That paper is still kind of a And then the which I published in is it's up I the was that plants were to and that was a lot on particularly bark because are the and bark beetles so their But you think you're a or a the or you find a lot of on the most of plants, like that up to the of the I was were a lot of and then the most one was the which that really the ecology of the right the of that a has an a that in time, years and it was in the after the sawflies. don't have an just have an it's an for So this that the into kind of it and that it very and to because it's so It in but high of the and it population dynamics are to what I because it find to like a which and all the in a forest and can there are that dynamics in the but that between and I like to think, is an important it I don't know, because this I on and in it's had so It [ Laughs .] Well, had a in insect me an This is one of my and it from the the where the of of do you where you [ Laughs .] Well, I in any insect I Not particularly. [ Laughs .] I like that I the which are the galling sawflies. really have been a wonderful to me a huge to a good of graduate and to a lot of and to with people in and had a lot of with people your Who is an you most and Well, I think has to an because early he published really important like the Then the of with in the and then he published the Insect , which is a book, I Then and then The with three are and had a huge his The for your career, what do you to your your name is mentioned in the what do you people to to Peter I and what I think are two [ Laughs me of them . I think that were to Insect Ecology , the author of that I had to [ Laughs .] one the is that people have me that really like the textbook and to entomology and insect ecology because of that I that is a more [ to being to insect But I’d like to think, as I said these that developed with my students, I think are a lot of so are important of around which you can a lot of and your So to me, is a kind of in insect So it. of your has you father of insect That is a very high . Well, I [ do think I insect me, or I have the have to the of this Well, Peter, I you very much for the for this interview . Well, you for the It's been It has been . It's me to things that I were deep in my the is for [ Laughs .] my been A study of the population dynamics of the sawfly. with got a lot of and a lot of to so people on you find that you know, I to my students, first are the that it's can and can You get it's but it's I [ Laughs .] This is Peter Price, the author of this classic on insect ecology and you me your paper has been twice . I it to of Ecology twice and it. But I published these on years and years in of Ecology , so that was the to it. So it to and more it. [ Laughs .] to of the and of for their of Peter Price, and to for the This interview was for and

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