McArthur, Archiebold John

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Archie's taxonomic work was focused on the genus Camponotus. He mounted and classified ants from over 5000 localities in Australia and collected ants from most Australian habitats. The collection of Camponotus in the South Australian Museum where he worked is the most significant for this genus in all of Australia.

Archie constructed keys for the identification of Australian Camponotus and has published on the importance of these ants in helping restore vegetation on disturbed sites. He also studied the similarity of some Australian and African ants, helped discover new populations of the dinosaur ant Nothomyrmecia macrops along the Eyre Highway. This species had previous been known only from Poochera in Eyre Peninsula.

Obituary
Archie was born 20 April, 1922 at Millicent, South Australia. He was a capable student and won a scholarship to Scotch College then another to St Marks College. At school and university he had an interest in photography and made pocket money developing other students’ negatives. He later took this skill to a sophisticated level of micro photography, allowing him to film ants from all angles under flash. This was an early step towards fulfilling his life’s crowning achievement; a unique tool to identify ants that previously had not been known.

He graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1948 with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. His study was interrupted by World War II where he was made a sub lieutenant at the age of 20 serving in the Royal Australian Navy. He worked on the radar repair ship “HMAS John Jim” along the north coast of West Papua servicing faults in naval ships. Archie ever observant, remembered an indigene pointing out a distant aldis lamp at night saying, “light he talk”.

Archie belonged to a rare breed in having had his education interrupted by war to return to civilian life with a great fervour to actively participate in his community. He quickly became involved in the Millicent Hospital, local National Park organisations, the Field Naturalists, National Trust and Fire Fighting organisations. On a state level he was on a number of Boards including; Advisory Board of Agriculture, Bushfire Research Committee, Fauna Consultative Committee and Presbyterian Girls College (now Seymour College). Right up until he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, Archie was a very active member of the Royal Society of South Australia and the Museum’s Waterhouse Club.

After 40 years of farming Archie moved to Adelaide as his wife, Meg had health issues. Archie commenced as a volunteer in the entomology section of the South Australian Museum in 1990 and was made an Honorary Research Associate in 1994. In 2002 his contributions were recognised with an OAM.

There is one outstanding scientific gift Archie gave to the world: the ability to identify ants through his three publications. The Camponotus Key was his work. The greatest living entomologist, Edward Wilson, Harvard, applauded Archie’s last book as a “very significant addition to systemic literature.” This was the solid core of his loveable eccentricity.

How did all this ant business start? In 1948 Archie inherited a farm devastated by rabbits and top soil blown away. He fenced off an area and single mindedly destroyed the rabbits. One species of ant came back when almost nothing else was left, followed by natural vegetation. He asked what it was and nobody knew. Only in CSIRO in Canberra did they know, it was Camponotus terebrans. That such a great achiever as this ant was so little known was an anomaly and Archie did not like this. Many years later he published a paper showing how this ant C. terebrans distributed the seeds of Coastal wattle across denuded country.

Archie was a self taught skilled taxonomist. A skilled taxonomist is not just a museum labeller. He is a world authority, often the world authority since there are very few taxonomists on the group he has chosen. He knows not only the classification but also the anatomy, physiology, behaviour and biogeography in fine detail both published and unpublished. So the task of an ant taxonomist is to describe the ant so that others can recognise it, which seems simple enough. The trouble with ants is that the field is vast. Archie restricted his research to two genus of ant: Camponotus and Colobopsis.

His research took him overseas numerous times to visit the great ant collections of the world which just happen to be located in some of the world’s greatest cities. Archie published his research nationally and internationally. His last great gift to the world was to provide work for the next generation of ant taxonomists when he gathered all the 100 or so Camponotus ants that still defied categorisation and put them on the web, photographed, dimensioned and grouped by attribute.

He passed away August 28 2016 and is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

PUBLICATIONS

 * [[Media:Klimes-mcarthur-2014-myrm-news.pdf|Klimes, P. & McArthur, A.J. 2014. Diversity and ecology of arboricolous ant communities of Camponotus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in a New Guinea rainforest with descriptions of four new species. Myrmecological News 20, 141-158.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur A Adams M 1996.pdf|McArthur, A. J. 1996. [Untitled. New species of Camponotus attributed to McArthur.] Pp. 27-34 in: McArthur, A. J., Adams, M. A morphological and molecular revision of the Camponotus nigriceps group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Australia. Invertebr. Taxon. 10:1-46.]]


 * [[Media:Adams 1997.pdf|McArthur, A. J.; Adams, M.; Shattuck, S. O. 1998 [1997]. A morphological and molecular review of Camponotus terebrans (Lowne) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Aust. J. Zool. 45: 579-598.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur 2003.pdf|McArthur, A.J. 2003. New species of Camponotus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 127(1):5-14.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur A 2007.pdf|McArthur, A. J. 2007a. A key to Camponotus Mayr of Australia. Pages 290-351 in Snelling, R. R., B. L. Fisher and P. S. Ward. Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Homage to E.O. Wilson - 50 years of contributions. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, 80.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur 2007b.pdf|McArthur, A. J. 2007b. New species of Camponotus (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Australia. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. B, Botanik, Zoologie 108:103-113.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur 2008.pdf|McArthur, A. J. 2008. New species of Camponotus (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Australia. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. Serie B für Botanik und Zoologie. 109B:111-129.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur A 2009.pdf|McArthur, A. J. 2009. New species, new status and new synonymy for Camponotus from Australia (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecologische Nachrichten. 12:273-286.]]


 * McArthur, AJ. 2010. A guide to Camponotus ants of South Australia: 121 pp. South Australian Museum.


 * McArthur, A.J. 2012. A guide to Colobopsis ants of the world: 234 pp. South Australian Museum.


 * [[Media:Adams 1997.pdf|McArthur, A. J.; Adams, M.; Shattuck, S. O. 1998 [1997]. A morphological and molecular review of Camponotus terebrans (Lowne) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Aust. J. Zool. 45: 579-598.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur & Leys 2006.pdf|McArthur, A. J. and R. Leys. 2006. A morphological and molecular study of some species in the Camponotus maculatus group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Australia and Africa, with a description of a new Australian species. Myrmecologische Nachrichten 8: 99-110.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur & Shattuck 2001.pdf|McArthur, A.J. ; Shattuck, S. O. 2001.  A taxonomic revision of the Camponotus macrocephalus species group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 125:25-43.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur A Shattuck S 1995.pdf|Shattuck, S. O.; McArthur, A. J. 1995. Generic placements of Australian ants described by W. F. Erichson (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Aust. Entomol. Soc. 34: 121-123.]]


 * [[Media:McArthur A Shattuck S 2002.pdf|Shattuck, S. O.; McArthur, A. J. 2002. A taxonomic revision of the Camponotus wiederkehri and perjurus species-groups (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 126:63-90.]]