Naturalist Ant Collectors

This page is a place for stories, tales and reports about obscure ant collectors that are not ant taxonomists. Some were biologists that perhaps studied other taxa but did, for various reasons, collect some ants. Others were naturalists or curious travelers that had cause to communicate with an ant taxonomist. Somehow it was arranged that ants were collected, sent off with some notes and from this the ants were described.

There are more than a few people that come up time and time again as the collector of specimens of ants from what used to be the parts of the world that were far removed from the centers of modern science - where ever that might have been at the time. In most cases these names are pondered over because the collector's name is attached to numerous type specimens.

Who were these obscure people? Why were they collecting ants in such and such a place? Why were they even at the places the collected? .... curious myrmecologists want to know.... and sometimes they are able to find out......

Balzan
As reported by Longino (2013) for Octostruma balzani:

This ant was named for Luigi Balzan, for whom Emery wrote this moving and poignant tribute: After a long journey across Bolivia, made very uncomfortable for lack of funds, Luigi Balzan returned to Italy a few months ago, bringing important zoological and anthropological collections. His sturdy physique, that had resisted the hardships and tropical climates, surrendered to a pernicious fever this past 20 September, in Padova, his homeland. For many years I was in correspondence with Balzan, who came to see me in Bologna before leaving; his unexpected death at a young age deeply saddened me.

Tonduz
Longino (2009) provided these details in his description of Pheidole synanthropica:

The syntype series of Pheidole indistincta was comprised of two different Tonduz collections later associated by Forel. The labels are spare, just "Costa Rica, Tonduz," but the minor worker series has a number 1 on the label and the lectotype major worker has a number 3 on the label. These are probably different collection events and are definitely two different species. The minor workers are P. synanthropica and the lectotype major is Pheidole pubiventris, another widespread and highly synanthropic species.

Tonduz was one of the early naturalists in Costa Rica, working with Anastasio Alfaro at the National Museum and sending abundant ant collections to taxonomists in Europe. Most of his collections are species of forested habitats, but it is perhaps telling that what might be his first collections, with collection numbers 1 and 3, are two ant species common in urban areas in the Central Valley. I have collected P. synanthropica in city parks just a few blocks from the National Museum where Tonduz worked. I can imagine a young Tonduz being sent out behind the museum to collect his first ants.