Myrmecology
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Myrmecology (from Greek: μύρμηξ, myrmex, "ant" and λόγος, logos, "study") is a branch of entomology focusing on the scientific study of ants. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and sought to find solutions to human problems by studying them. (Proverbs 6:6... Citation given) Ants continue to be a model of choice for the study of questions on the evolution of social systems because of their complex and varied forms of eusociality (social organization). Their diversity and prominence in ecosystems also has made them important components in the study of biodiversity and conservation. Recently, ant colonies are also studied and modeled for their relevance in machine learning, complex interactive networks, stochasticity of encounter and interaction networks, parallel computing, and other computing fields.
Contents |
[edit]
Myrmecologists in fiction
The fictional black and white 1954 Warner Bros. movie Them! describes the visiting expert Dr. Harold Medford (played by Edmund Gwenn) from the Department of Agriculture in Washington DC as a myrmecologist.
[edit]
List of notable myrmecologists
Note: Names are listed alphabetically.
- Ernest André (1838–1911), French entomologist
- Thomas Borgmeier (1892–1975), German-Brazilian theologian and entomologist
- William L. Brown, Jr. (1922–1997), American entomologist
- Giovanni Cobelli (1849–1937), Italian entomologist, director of the Rovereto museum
- Arthur Charles Cole, Jr. (1908–1955), American entomologist
- Walter Cecil Crawley, British entomologist
- William Steel Creighton (1902–1973), American entomologist
- Horace Donisthorpe (1870–1951), British myrmecologist, named several new species
- Carlo Emery (1848–1925), Italian entomologist
- Johan Christian Fabricius (1745–1808), Danish entomologist, student of Linnaeus
- Auguste-Henri Forel (1848–1931), Swiss myrmecologist, studied brain structure of humans and ants
- Émil August Goeldi (1859–1917), Swiss-Brazilian naturalist and zoologist
- William Gould (1715–1799), described by Horace Donisthorpe as "the father of British myrmecology"
- Robert Edmond Gregg (1912–1991), American entomologist
- Thomas Caverhill Jerdon (1811–1872), British physician, zoologist and botanist
- Walter Wolfgang Kempf (1920–1976), Brazilian myrmecologist
- Heinrich Kutter (1896–1990), Swiss myrmecologist
- Nicolas Kusnezov also as Nikolaj Nikolajevich Kuznetsov-Ugamsky (1898–1963)
- Pierre André Latreille (1762–1833) French entomologist
- Sir John Lubbock (the 1st Lord and Baron Avebury) (1834–1913), wrote on hymenoptera sense organs
- William T. Mann (1886–1960), American entomologist
- Gustav Mayr (1830–1908), Austrian entomologist and professor in Pest and Vienna, specialised in Hymenoptera
- Carlo Menozzi also as Carlo Minozzi (1892–1943), Italian entomologist
- Wilhelm Nylander (1822–1899), Finnish botanist, briologist, micologist, entomologist and myrmecologist
- Basil Derek Wragge-Morley (1920–1969), research included genetics, social behaviour of animals, and the behaviour of agricultural pests
- Fergus O'Rourke (1923– 2010), Irish zoologist
- Julius Roger (1819–1865), German physician, entomologist and folklorist
- Felix Santschi (1872–1940), Swiss entomologist
- Theodore Christian Schneirla (1902–1968), American animal psychologist
- Frederick Smith (1805–1879), worked in the zoology department of the British Museum from 1849, specialising in the Hymenoptera
- Roy R. Snelling (1934–2008), American entomologist credited with many important finds of rare or new ant species
- Erich Wasmann (1859–1931), Austrian entomologist
- Neal Albert Weber (1908–2001), American myrmecologist
- John Obadiah Westwood (1805–1893), English entomologist and archaeologist also noted for his artistic talents
- William Morton Wheeler (1865–1937), curator of invertebrate zoology in the American Museum of Natural History, described many new species
[edit]
Contemporary myrmecologists
- Donat Agosti, Swiss entomologist
- Cesare Baroni Urbani, Swiss ant taxonomist
- Murray S. Blum (1929–), American chemical ecologist, an expert on pheromones
- Barry Bolton, English ant taxonomist
- Alfred Buschinger, German myrmecologist
- Henri Cagniant, French myrmecologist
- John S. Clark, Scottish myrmecologist
- Cedric Alex Collingwood, British entomologist
- Mark Amidon Deyrup, American myrmecologist
- Francesc Xavier Espadaler i Gelabert, Spanish myrmecologist, specialist in Mediterranean and Macaronesian ants and in invasive species
- Deborah Gordon (1955–), studies ant colony behavior and ecology
- William H. Gotwald, Jr., American entomologist
- Michael J. Greene studies interactions between chemical cues and behavior patterns
- Bert Hölldobler (1936–), Pulitzer Prize winning German myrmecologist
- Laurent Keller (1961–), Swiss evolutionary biologist and myrmecologist
- John E. Lattke
- John T. Longino, American entomologist
- Mark W. Moffett (1958–), American entomologist and photographer
- Corrie S. Moreau, American evolutionary biologist and entomologist, wrote on evolution and diversification of ants
- Justin Orvel Schmidt, American entomologist, studies the chemical and behavioral defenses of ants, wasps, and arachnids
- Bernhard Seifert, German entomologist
- Steven O. Shattuck, American-Australian entomologist
- Marion R. Smith, American entomologist
- Robert W. Taylor, Australian myrmecologist
- Alberto Tinaut Ranera, Spanish myrmecologist
- Walter R. Tschinkel, American myrmecologist
- James C. Trager, American myrmecologist
- Gary J. Umphrey, American biostatistician and myrmecologist
- Philip S. Ward, American entomologist
- Edward Osborne Wilson (1929–), Pulitzer Prize winning American myrmecologist, revolutionized the field of sociobiology
[edit]
Related terms
- Myrmecochorous (adj.) dispersed by ants
- Myrmecophagous (adj.) feeding on ants
- Myrmecophile (n.) an organism that habitually shares an ant nest, myrmecophilous (adj.), myrmecophily (n.)
- Myrmidons (n.) ant-men in Metamorphoses and in Homer's Iliad, where they are Achilles' warriors
[edit]
See also
- Ant-keeping
- Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society
- Formicarium, also known as ant farm
- Stigmergy, a biological mechanism attributed to the coordination of ants and other social insects
- Myrmecological News, an independent, international, non-profit, scientific journal devoted to ant research
- International Union for the Study of Social Insects
- Ant colony optimization
- Swarm intelligence
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Myrmecology" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
