Roger Blackman 1941-2022 an appreciation

Dr Roger Laurence Blackman (Fig. 1) passed away on 17 March 2022, after more than 50 years dedicated to advances in aphid science. There can be very few scientists studying any aspect of aphids whose papers have not cited the works of Roger Blackman. To his name, we add that of Victor Eastop (1924–2012), for the two of them formed an inspirational, complementary and indefatigable pair at London’s Natural History Museum. Together they were responsible for, amongst many other seminal works, the three testaments of the aphidologists’ bible: Aphids on the World’s Crops, Aphids on the World’s Trees and Aphids on the World’s Herbaceous Plants and Shrubs, now brought together and regularly updated by Roger until very recently in the online version, Aphids on the World’s Plants (www.aphidsonworldsplants.info). Victor was an out-and-out taxonomist, absolutely amongst the best the world has known, whilst being very familiar with most aspects of aphidology. Roger’s contributions were broader as we shall see.