Grigorii Iakovlevich Bei-Bienko

Born Feb. 7, 1903, in Belopol’e, Khar’kov Province; died Oct. 3,1971, in Leningrad. Soviet entomologist; corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN SSSR; 1953); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1963).

In 1925, Bei-Bienko graduated from the Omsk Agricultural Institute. His basic investigations concern the ecology of insects; the theory of plant protection; the systematics of Orthoptera, Dictyoptera, and Dermaptera; and the development of entomology in the USSR. These studies were carried out at the All-Union Institute of Plant Protection (1929–38), the Leningrad Agricultural Institute (1938–68), and the Zoological Institute of the AN SSSR (since 1947). His work facilitated the successful solution to the problem of combatting grasshoppers. He also discovered the basic rules of the change in vegetation during the development of virgin lands, and he validated the principle of changing dwelling places by land organisms (Zhurnal obshchei biologii, 1966, no. 1).

Bei-Bienko is the author of textbooks (including General Entomology, 1966) and monographs from the series Fauna of the USSR, including Dictyoptera Insects (1950; awarded the N. A. Kholodkovskii Prize of the AN SSSR in 1951) and Grasshoppers of the USSR and Contiguous Countries (parts 1–2, 1951, with L. L. Mishchenko, awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1952). Bei-Bienko became president of the All-Union Entomological Society in 1966. He was awarded two orders.