Myrmecology

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. 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.
History
The word myrmecology was coined by William Morton Wheeler (1865–1937), although human interest in the life of ants goes back further, with numerous ancient folk references. The earliest scientific thinking based on observation of ant life was that of Auguste Forel (1848–1931), a Swiss psychologist who initially was interested in ideas of instinct, learning, and society. In 1874 he wrote a book on the ants of Switzerland, Les fourmis de la Suisse, and he named his home La Fourmilière (the ant colony). Forel's early studies included attempts to mix species of ants in a colony. He noted polydomy and monodomy in ants and compared them with the structure of nations.
Wheeler looked at ants in a new light, in terms of their social organization, and in 1910 he delivered a lecture at Woods Hole on "The Ant-Colony as an Organism", which pioneered the idea of superorganisms. Wheeler considered trophallaxis or the sharing of food within the colony as the core of ant society. This was studied using a dye in the food and observing how it spread in the colony.
Some, such as Horace Donisthorpe, worked on the systematics of ants. This tradition continued in many parts of the world until advances in other aspects of biology were made. The advent of genetics, ideas in ethology and its evolution led to new thought. This line of enquiry was pioneered by E. O. Wilson, who founded the field termed as sociobiology.
Interdisciplinary application
Ants often are studied by engineers for biomimicry and by network engineers for more efficient networking. It is not known clearly how ants manage to avoid congestions and how they optimize their movements to move in most efficient ways without a central authority that would send out orders. There already have been many applications in structure design and networking that have been developed from studying ants, but the efficiency of human-created systems is still not close to the efficiency of ant colonies. Furthermore, there are efforts to use ant algorithms and the behavioral strategies of ants in modern management.
Myrmecologists in fiction
The 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.
Dr. Hank Pym is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
List of notable myrmecologists
Note: Names are listed alphabetically.
Ernest André (1838–1911), French entomologist
Thomas Borgmeier (1892–1975), German-Brazilian theologian and entomologist
Murray S. Blum (1929–2015), American chemical ecologist, an expert on pheromones
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
William Nylander (1822–1899), Finnish botanist, biologist, mycologist, 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
Edward Osborne Wilson (1929–2021), Pulitzer Prize winning American myrmecologist, revolutionized the field of sociobiology
Contemporary myrmecologists
Donat Agosti, Swiss entomologist
Cesare Baroni Urbani, Swiss ant taxonomist
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
Laurel D. Hansen, (1940–) American myrmecologist, studies carpenter ant biology and urban management
James C. Trager, American myrmecologist
Gary J. Umphrey, American biostatistician and myrmecologist
Philip S. Ward, American entomologist
Daniel Kronauer American myrmecologist
Alejandro G. Farji-Brener, Argentinean myrmecologist
Susanne Foitzik, German myrmecologist
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
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
References
External links
Documentary about myrmecology
Subfields of entomology