John Harvey Lovell

John Harvey Lovell (1860-1939) was an internationally known amateur American naturalist and author who focused his studies on the interaction of flowers and bees and is credited with recording 32 bee species in southern Maine and demonstrating that bees can see in color. Personal life and education Lovell was born in Waldoboro, Maine October 21, 1860 to sea captain Harvey Lovell and Sophonia (Bulfinch) Lovell. He attended local schools and was tutored by his uncle Rev. John J. Bulfinch, esq. for college and he attained degrees from Amherst College in 1882 and 1889. Lovell taught school in Nobleboro and Norridgewock, Maine, and had a fruit farm. Lovell married Lottie Evangeline Magune who assisted his research and had two sons Harvey Bulfinch Lovell and Ralph Marston Lovell. Harvey received a Ph.D. in zoology from Harvard in 1933 and they collaborated on six papers before John died in Sanford, Maine on August 2, 1939. Harvey went on to be a professor of biology at the University of Louisville and an author. When Lovell's father died John inherited a fortune allowing him to focus his life on his studies. Research Lovell described himself as a field naturalist, as opposed to a laboratory naturalist, as his studies were done outdoors rather than in a laboratory. Lovell found bees hard to identify and thus began his interest in apiology, particularly studying honey bees. With Theodore D. A. Cockerell they identified 32 species in Maine and noted that some bees only visit one kind of flower such as the pickerel weed bee. He was described as being "...among the most conspicuous present-day field naturalists..." in 1922. He was noted to have recorded for the first time some "... intricate floral mechanisms and life histories of many Maine flowers." In his article "The Color Sense of the Honey-Bee: Can Bees Distinguish Colors?" Lovell concluded his testing proved that bees can determine the difference between natural and artificial colors and are influenced but not "obsessional" about colors. Another example of the observations and testing Lovell accomplished is discussed in his article "Conspicuous flowers rarely visited by insects.": "Discusses the role of factors that attract insects to conspicuous flowers. Colors and odors attract the attention of insects, however, the absence of either will not necessarily cause a flower to be neglected if it contains an ample supply of pollen and nectar.