Creighton, William Steel (1902-1973)

AUTHORS: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

ANT TAXONOMY

As a student of William Wheeler at the Bussey Institute at Harvard, Creighton inherited the problem of an unwieldy system that made the field of ant systematics practically unusable. Although Creighton had access to a huge museum collection at Harvard, he came to see that field work provided more accurate classification of subspecies based on Ernst Mayr’s definitions. He challenged the system of his mentor, Wheeler, who had based his classifications on form, structure and behavior. In turn, his own protégés and younger colleagues, William Brown and E. O. Wilson, challenged his classifications and denied the reality of the subspecies that Creighton defined. Creighton, however, using field work as the bedrock of his classification system, eventually prevailed over those who based their system on museum types.

Primary location of author's collection: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

TAXONOMIC PUBLICATIONS

REFERENCES

Joshua Buhs 2004. Building on Bedrock: William Steel Creighton and the Reformation of Ant Systematics, 1925–1970. Journal of the History of Biology.
George C. Wheeler 1989. My association with William Steel Creighton. Insecta Mundi University of Nebraska - Lincoln Year 1989
Gregg, R E. 1974. William Steel Creighton--an appreciation. J. New York Ent. Soc. 82:65-75

AUTHORS: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z