Joseph Charles Bequaert | |
---|---|
Born | Torhout, Belgium | May 24, 1886
Died | January 12, 1982 95) | (aged
Alma mater | University of Ghent |
Scientific career | |
Fields | malacology, entomology |
Institutions | American Museum of Natural History and Harvard Medical School |
Joseph Charles Bequaert was an American naturalist of Belgian origin, born 24 May 1886 in Torhout (Belgium) and died on 12 January 1982 in Amherst, Massachusetts. [1]
Bequaert obtained a doctorate in botany at the University of Ghent in 1908. He was an entomologist, and from 1910 to 1912 he was part of la commission Belge sur la maladie du sommeil (Belgian Committee on sleeping sickness). From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a botanist in the Belgian Congo and also collected mollusks.
In 1916 he emigrated to the United States and was an associate researcher from 1917 to 1922 at the American Museum of Natural History. He became an American citizen in 1921, and taught entomology at the Harvard Medical School. From 1929 to 1956 he was Curator of Insects at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, and was Professor of Zoology from 1951 to 1956 within the same institution.
Bequaert became president of the American Malacological Union in 1954. He left his post at Harvard in 1956. From 1956 to 1960 he lectured in biology at the University of Houston. With Walter Bernard Miller (1918–2000), he published The Mollusks of the Arid Southwest in 1973.
He was a member of various learned societies: Zoological Society of France, the Entomological Society of America, the Belgian Royal Society of Entomology, the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine, the Royal Institute of Colonial Belgium, Koninklijk Natuurwetenschappelijk Genootschap Dodonaea, and the Natural History Society of North Africa.
Bequaert was formerly commemorated in the taxon Bequaertiodendron magalismontanum (Sond.) Heine & J.H.Hemsl. now known as Englerophytum magalismontanum (Sond.) T.D.Penn. [2]
He was also honoured in 1993, in the naming of Normandiodendron bequaertii . [3]
Bequaert was formerly commemorated in several names of ants. Note that only valid names are listed (as of July 2016).
Aenictogiton bequaerti Forel, 1913 [5]
Anochetus bequaerti Forel, 1913 [6]
Azteca bequaerti Wheeler, 1929 [7]
Camponotus confluens bequaerti Forel, 1913 [8]
Cataulacus bequaerti Forel, 1913 [9]
Centromyrmex bequaerti (Forel, 1913) [10]
Strumigenys bequaerti Santschi, 1923 [11]
Crematogaster bequaerti Forel, 1913 [12]
Dorylus bequaerti Forel, 1913 [13]
Monomorium bequaerti Forel, 1913 [14]
Pheidole bequaerti Forel, 1913 [15]
Phrynoponera bequaerti Wheeler, 1922 [16]
Tetramorium bequaerti Forel, 1913 [17]
Bequaert is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake and two frogs: [18] [19]
He published over 250 papers; over 50 of them are about molluscs. [1]
(incomplete)
Aenictogiton is a genus of ants, comprising seven rarely collected species. All the species are known only from males found in Central Africa, and show a morphological and phylogenetic affinity to the army ant genus Dorylus. The dorylomorph ants include six subfamilies– Aenictogitoninae, Cerapachyinae, Leptanilloidinae, and the three army ant subfamilies Aenictinae, Dorylinae and Ecitoninae.
Myrmicinae is a subfamily of ants, with about 140 extant genera; their distribution is cosmopolitan. The pupae lack cocoons. Some species retain a functional sting. The petioles of Myrmicinae consist of two nodes. The nests are permanent and in soil, rotting wood, under stones, or in trees.
Émil August Goeldi, was a Swiss-Brazilian naturalist and zoologist. He was the father of Oswaldo Goeldi, a noted Brazilian engraver and illustrator.
Dorylus, also known as driver ants, safari ants, or siafu, is a large genus of army ants found primarily in central and east Africa, although the range also extends to southern Africa and tropical Asia. The term siafu is a loanword from Swahili, and is one of numerous similar words from regional Bantu languages used by indigenous peoples to describe various species of these ants. Unlike the New World members of the former subfamily Ecitoninae, members of this genus form temporary subterranean bivouacs in underground cavities which they excavate and inhabit - either for a few days or up to three months. Also unlike some New World army ants, driver ants are not specialized predators of other species of ant, instead being more generalistic with a diet consisting of a diversity of arthropods. Colonies are enormous compared to other army ants and can contain over 20 million individuals. As with their American counterparts, workers exhibit caste polymorphism with the soldiers having particularly large heads that power their scissor-like mandibles. They are capable of stinging, but very rarely do so, relying instead on their powerful shearing jaws. Driver ant queens are the largest living ants known, with the largest measuring between 40 - 63 millimeters in total body length depending on their physiological condition.
Barry Bolton is an English myrmecologist, an expert on the classification, systematics, and taxonomy of ants, who long worked at the Natural History Museum, London. He is known especially for monographs on African and Asian ants, and for encyclopaedic global works, including the Identification Guide to Ant Genera (1994), A New General Catalogue of Ants of the World, Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae (2003), and Bolton's Catalogue of Ants of the World: 1758-2005 (2007). Now retired, Bolton is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and Myrmecologist, Biodiversity Division, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London.
Phrynobatrachus bequaerti is a species of frog in the family Phrynobatrachidae. It is found in the mountains of north-western Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and western Rwanda. The specific name bequaerti honours Joseph Charles Bequaert, a Belgian botanist, entomologist, and malacologist and who collected the holotype from Mount Vissoke. Common name Vissoke river frog has been coined for this species.
Gustav L. Mayr was an Austrian entomologist and professor in Budapest and Vienna. He specialised in Hymenoptera, being particularly known for his studies of ants.
Aphaenogaster is a genus of myrmicine ants. About 200 species have been described, including 18 fossil species. They occur worldwide except in South America south of Colombia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Antarctica.
Crematogaster is an ecologically diverse genus of ants found worldwide, which are characterised by a distinctive heart-shaped gaster (abdomen), which gives them one of their common names, the Saint Valentine ant. Members of this genus are also known as cocktail ants because of their habit of raising their abdomens when alarmed. Most species are arboreal (tree-dwelling). These ants are sometimes known as acrobat ants.
Tetramorium is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae that includes more than 520 species. These ants are also known as pavement ants.
Carebara diversa, is a species of marauder ant widely distributed throughout Asia.
A list of the species of Hymenoptera from New Zealand; currently listing the 'stinging wasps' (Aculeata), which includes ants, bees, and social wasps.
Normandiodendron is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. It only contains one known species, Normandiodendron bequaertii(De Wild.) J.Léonard
In ecology, a tramp species is an organism that has been spread globally by human activities. The term was coined by William Morton Wheeler in the bulletin of the American museum of natural history in 1906, used to describe ants that “have made their way as well known tramps or stow-aways[sic] to many islands The term has since widened to include non-ant organisms, but remains most popular in myrmecology. Tramp species have been noted in multiple phyla spanning both animal and plant kingdoms, including but not limited to arthropods, mollusca, bryophytes, and pteridophytes. The term "tramp species" was popularized and given a more set definition by Luc Passera in his chapter of David F William's 1994 book Exotic Ants: Biology, Impact, And Control Of Introduced Species.