Mahadeva Subramania Mani - Scientific Works

Scientific Works

His published work includes over 250 original research papers, over 34 text books including his pioneering magnum opus, Ecology of Plant Galls.

His outstanding Research work has been on Taxonomy of parasitic Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea and Proctotrupoidea), gall midges (Itonididae: Diptera) and ecology and histogenesis of plant galls. He is remembered most for his pioneering work in high altitude entomology. He led the first three Entomological Expeditions to the North West Himalaya in 1954, 1955 and 1956 and brought back a large collection of insects.

He published several books like High Altitude Entomology, Ecology and Biogeography of India etc. He led a team of Indian scientists to the Soviet Union for conducting jointly a research project in 1963 and represented India in the UNESCO programme on Man and Biosphere (MAB) at Oslo, Norway. He was fluent in written and spoken German, well read in Sanskrit, he also had a keen interest in Dutch, French and Russian languages.

Entomological Survey of the Himalaya, Alai-Pamir, Tien Shan, Kun Lun, Caucasus etc. His love of the mountains had begun as far back as 1950, when he went to the Nilgiris, Mardamalai Mountains with his son Visvanath; this was followed by similar visits to the mountains in north India, Dehra Dun 1950, Mussoorie/Chakrata 1952, Nainital, Garhwal Himalaya, (Hartola, 1952), Punjab / Himachal Himalaya, (Dhaula Dhar Range, 1953) and to Kullu, Manali region leading to the three pioneering expeditions, in 1954, 1955 and 1956, beyond the Pir Panjal Range, to the inner or Great Himalayan Range, in Lahaul & Spiti regions. He also extensively trekked and went on insect collection work in the mountain regions, Alai-Pamir, Tien Shan, Kun Lun, Caucasus, the Urals etc., of the former USSR, during his official tour in 1963, as the leader of the Indian team; he travelled extensively to various scientific institutes, at Moscow, Tbilisi, Leningrad, Kiev, Baku, Alma Ata, Samarkand, Tashkent etc.,. He also visited Oslo, in Norway on a similar invitation. He was a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He went on an insect collection trip, to the Pacific islands, Fiji and conducted a field trip off Vanua Levu, in the area of Taveuni island, across the International dateline. He trained Visvanath to work with his students, and who accompanied him on most field collection expeditions and taught him methods of preparing slides, mounting insect specimens and proof reading of Research papers. His first son, Visvanath was his constant companion on his mountain trails, starting with the first time at Mardamalai in 1950. Visvanath went on to trek in Sikkim, Bhutan in 1965 and climb on his own in the Kulti Nala glacier and Inner Himalayan Range of Spiti, in 1967.