1638-1712

English zoologist who is best known for his Tractatus de Araneis, the world's first scientific work on spiders, published in English as Martin Lister's English Spiders (1678). Modern entomologists study Lister's book and value both his astute observations about spiders and the precise drawings by Michael Roberts. Lister was a medical doctor, zoologist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was appointed Queen Anne's physician in 1709.