William Morton Wheeler

William Morton Wheeler (March 19, 1865 – April 19, 1937) was an American entomologist, known as a leading expert in myrmecology. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1908 to 1934, leader of the Harvard Australian Expedition (1931–1932), and associate curator of insects at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) from 1929 to 1936. Wheeler was elected in 1909 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1912 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and in 1916 to the American Philosophical Society. Quotes Conocephalus brevipennis Xiphidium ensiferum, Scudder, a very common Locustid in Wisconsin and the neighboring states, deposits its eggs in the silvery napiform galls produced by Cecidomyia gnaphaloides (and perhaps allied species) on the low willows that abound in the marshy lands and along small water courses. I have found the insect ovipositing from the middle of August to the middle of September. It thrusts its ensate ovipositor in between the imbricated scales of the gall and places its eggs singly or in a more or less even row with their long axes directed like the long axis of the gall. The eggs are completely concealed by the scales, the overlapping edges of which spring back to their original positions as soon as the ovipositor is withdrawn. A Contribution to Insect Embryology Journal of Morphology VIII April 1893 1 1–160 (quote from p. 3; doctoral dissertation of W. M. Wheeler, Clark University, May 1892; offprint published by Ginn & Company in 1893) During May and June, 1904, the American Museum of Natural History organized an expedition to the Bahamas primarily for the purpose of enabling Mr. Frank Chapman (ornithologist) Frank M. Chapman to make a study of the habits and secure specimens of the American flamingo. I had the pleasure of accompanying Mr. Chapman on this expedition, for which Mr. Nathan Bill of Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield, Mass., very generously placed his schooner, the Gloria at our disposal. Ants were collected in many localities on Andros, the Bahamas Andros Island, the largest but least frequently visited, and on New Providence, the best-known of the islands. Article VIII.—Ants of the Bahamas, with a List of the Known West Indian Species XXI 79–135 1905 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History UeMyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA79 (quote from p. 79; offprint from Knickerbocker Press, 1905) Ants are to be found everywhere, from the arctic regions to the tropics, from Tree line timberline on the loftiest mountains to the Dune#Dune movement shifting sands of the dunes and seashores, and from the Rainforest dampest forests to the driest deserts. Not only do they outnumber in individuals all other terrestrial animals, but their Ant colony colonies even in very circumscribed localities often defy enumeration. Their colonies are, moreover, remarkably stable, sometimes outlasting a generation of men. Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior Issue 9 of Columbia biological series Columbia University Press 1910 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zx6Ydd8SQKEC&pg=PA2 2 (663 pages) As many previous students have remarked, the study of the Baltic amber#Paleobiology insects embedded in the amber is frought with many and peculiar difficulties. Although some specimens are as beautifully clear as if they had just been carefully dehydrated and embedded in Canada balsam by an expert histologist, most of the specimens are either in awkward positions or have portions of the body concealed beneath milky or silvery films or air-bubbles or obscured by disconcerting cracks, or the highly refractive medium gives rise to distorted images which can be corrected only by repeated examination in the most various lights or by careful comparison of numerous specimens of the same species. It is, or course, possible to dissolve the amber away from the insects, but when this is done, only a black, crumbling, residue of decomposed chitin remains. At least this was all I saw of the few common specimens which I attempted to free from their matrix. The Ants of the Baltic Amber B. G. Teubner 1914 https://books.google.com/books?id=VdVLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 1–2 (142 pages) Our present laboratory fauna is deplorably scanty, mainly because so few small animals can be kept alive for considerable periods in an artificial environment without a considerable expenditure of time and labor on feeding, maintaining optimal conditions of moisture, temperature, etc. The Vermileonidae worm-lion and the Antlion ant-lion, in addition to being extremely hardy, have the advantage of presenting a host of interesting, unsolved or only partially solved physiological and behavioristic problems. Preface vii–xi Demons of the Dust New York W. W. Norton & Company 1930 https://books.google.com/books?id=hrvPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR7 (quote from p. vii; 378 pages) External links Mrs. Wheeler Dies; Zoologist’s Widow September 7, 1960 New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1947/09/07/archives/mrs-wheeler-dies-zoologists-widow-former-aide-of-republican-unit-in.html William Morton Wheeler, Foibles of Insects and Men A.A. Knopf 1928 9780598924315 https://books.google.com/books?id=g5UpAQAAMAAJ (217 pages) Raghavendra Gadagkar, An Indian Tribute to William Morton Wheeler Journal of the Indian Institute of Science 2023 103 949–961 10.1007/s41745-023-00416-2 Category:1865 births Category:1937 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Curators Category:Entomologists Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:People from Milwaukee Category:Science authors from the United States