George and Jeanette Wheeler Ant Collection

Up until the middle of the last century, most ant taxonomists focused on characteristics of adult workers and knew little about the comparative morphology of ant larvae. Then, in over 100 publications from about 1950 to 1990, George and Jeanette Wheeler described characteristics, coined terminology, and established nearly everything we know about the diversity of larval forms in ants. Ant taxonomists routinely "outsourced" larval descriptions to them. While taxonomic authorities such as Bill Brown and Walter Kempf would describe new genera or species by evaluating adult characteristics, they would send representative samples of adults and larvae to the Wheelers. The Wheelers would mount a few of the adults for their synoptic collection, and then make careful morphological studies of the larvae. As a result, they accumulated a remarkable synoptic collection of the world's ant fauna.

We thank Dr. Jack Longino (Evergreen State College) for kindly providing the history of the Wheeler collection.