William Morton Wheeler

William Morton Wheeler

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William Morton Wheeler (March 19, 1865 - April 19 1937) was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and Harvard Professor.

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Wheeler was trained as an insect embryologist, having studied under Baur, Dohrn and Whitman, but became the leading authority on behaviour of social insects, with particular distinction being achieved in the field of ants . He took particular interest in the evolution of social behaviour in ants. He was instrumental in the development of ethology and first popularized the term in a 1902 paper in Science.

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He was a taxonomist of the highest order, and was responsible for the descriptions of innumerable species.

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A close contact of the British myrmecologist and coleopterist Horace Donisthorpe, it was to Wheeler that Donisthorpe dedicated his in 1915. Donisthorpe and Wheeler also frequently exchanged specimens, leading the latter to first develop the idea that the Formicinae subfamily had its origins in North America.

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March 19: March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). There are 287 days remaining....

1865: 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday....

1937: 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar)....

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