Andrew Rodger Waterston

Dr Andrew Rodger Waterston OBE FRSE FRES (30 March 1912 – 12 July 1996) was a Scottish zoologist, specialising in malacology and entomology. He was interested in the insect fauna of the Middle East and in the fauna of the Outer Hebrides. He was generally known as Rodger Waterston.

Early life and pre-war career Rodger Waterston was born in the manse on 30 March 1912 in Ollaberry on mainland Shetland, where his father, the entomologist James Waterston, was a minister in the United Free Church at the time.

When his father was appointed as an entomologist at the Imperial Bureau of Entomology in 1917 the family moved to London. In London, Rodger attended St Paul's School. Through his father he came to know many of the respected entomologists of that time, whilst he developed his own interests in entomology and acquired the field skills which were to serve him in his career. He returned to Scotland, where he studied Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, He participated in the Edinburgh University Biological Society expedition to survey and record the fauna and flora of Barra in 1935.

In 1938 he married Marie Elizabeth Campbell, whom he had studied alongside. They had a daughter, Susan. In 1942 he joined the Royal Scots, with which he served for a year before being transferred to the Colonial Office, where he was appointed to the Middle East Supply Centre in Cairo; his role there was Locust Officer in the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit, and he took charge of the Palestine Anti-Locust Unit in Saudi Arabia. After the war ended, Waterston remained with the Colonial Office and travelled widely in the Middle East, northern Africa, and India constructing a framework for monitoring and controlling the locust. In 1947 he was appointed chief locust officer responsible for locust monitoring and control in the Middle East, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. He was Entomological Advisor to the British Middle East Office and Attaché for Scientific Affairs at the British Embassies in Cairo and Beirut. Waterston conducted research in the Middle East, but he mainly worked to establish technical cooperation and coordination for controlling the desert locust under challenging international conditions. In 1952 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of this work. In 1982, he was awarded the Society's Neill Prize Medal in recognition of his contribution to the natural history of the Hebrides and to Scottish entomology. He was awarded the OBE in 1952 for his work on locust control.

Publications The following is a list of the publications authored or co-authored by A. Rodger Waterston. The moth Armada waterstoni Wiltshire, 1949, treated now as the subspecies Epharmottomena tenera waterstoni. Waterston collected the holotype. The damselfly Calopteryx waterstoni Schneider, 1984. "Special thanks are accorded to Dr A.R. Waterston (Edinburgh) who also realized that the specimens in question represent a new species, but left the description to me." The terrestrial slug Ambigolimax waterstoni Hutchinson et al., 2022. As an undergraduate Waterston studied the species in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. One of his preserved specimens became the holotype almost 90 years later.