The Entomological Society of India will organise the National Dialogue on Insect in Health, Agriculture and Environment at ICAR-NBAIR, Yelahanka Campus, Bengaluru, on December 15 and 16 to mark the birth centenary of prominent entomologist T.N. Ananthakrishnan.
The event will see several sessions in honour of the late scientist, including sessions on ”You are how much you eat: Caste and nutrition in the Indian paper wasp” and “Signal transduction and omics in plant defence mechanisms under insect attack” by Raghavendra Gadagkar and Madhavan Soundararajan, respectively.
The sessions would also be held on Indian Thysanoptera in memory of Ananthakrishnan who wrote the book titled Taxonomy of Indian Thysanoptera.
A special edition of the Indian Journal of Entomology will be released during the event to celebrate one hundred years of Ananthakrishnan.
Significant contributor
A native of Taracad in Palakkad district of Kerala, Ananthakrishnan started his teaching career at Madras Christian College. Later, he took up a lecturer position at Loyola College, Chennai, before moving onto become the founder director of the Entomology Research Institute. Later, he also served as the Director of Zoological Survey of India.
A biologist who made critical contributions to Indian entomology, Ananthakrishnan is remembered for his work on Thysanoptera, an agricultural and horticultural crop-damaging insect. Ananthakrishnan unveiled around 400 new nominal taxa of Thysanoptera and pioneered research into insect polymorphism.
Published – December 13, 2025 06:29 pm IST
