The life and work of Ethelwynn Trewavas: beyond the focus on tilapiine cichlids

Synopsis

Ethelwynn Trewavas was respected as a person and an ichthyologist by all who knew her. She was recognized as the senior scientist in the Fish Section of the British Museum of Natural History for almost half a century, and known internationally as an authority on several widely different groups of fishes, principally cichlids and sciaenids. Her early career was influenced by C. Tate Regan, her mentor at the Museum. She continued to develop her expertise from those foundations, and established her own reputation and independent collaborations with colleagues from a number of major institutions. She is most widely known for her major revisions of the African cichlids, but she published extensive taxonomic revisions and descriptions on other groups as well. She combined meticulous laboratory studies with extended field trips where she relied on her insights and interviews with local people to understand the biology of the fishes she was studying.