Fisher, Brian Lee

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Fisher has committed his life to exploring the world of ants. The fact that ants are industrious, tenacious workers who live in colonies and obey a hierarchy of rulers is well known. In fact, it mirrors qualities found in humankind. But Fisher's studies go well beyond these characteristics. For the last twenty–three years, he has traveled the globe finding, collecting, identifying and naming ants, describing their behaviors, and cataloguing their traits. There are an estimated 22,000 ant species known to science. Fisher has personally discovered 1000 species of these. His love affair with ants was spontaneous. Born in Normal, Ill., the son of a college professor and a fifth grade teacher, Brian Fisher knew he wanted to work in the outdoors but not as a park forester in a park. Flying to Europe the day after his high school graduation, he spent two years bicycling the continent, learning French and carpentry before returning home. Once back, he enrolled at the University of Iowa, majoring in biology. “But I was itching to get to Latin America, learn Spanish and live the dream of a tropical plant collector,” he remembers. It was during a year in Panama that he worked part-time for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He also worked as an aspiring botanist, collecting specimens of tropical flora. It was during his stay in Panama that the love bug bit. “You go to the tropics and the sheer diversity of insects are literally raining down on you,” says Dr. Fisher. “At that point, I decided to switch from being a great botanical explorer to becoming an ant finder.”

PUBLICATIONS

 * Bolton, B. & Fisher, B.L. 2008a. The Afrotropical ponerine ant genus Asphinctopone Santschi. Zootaxa 1827: 53-61.


 * Bolton, B. and B. L. Fisher. 2008b. The Afrotropical ponerine ant genus Phrynoponera Wheeler (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 1892: 35-52.


 * Bolton, B. and B. L. Fisher. 2008c. Afrotropical ants of the ponerine genera Centromyrmex Mayr, Promyopias Santschi gen. rev. and Feroponera gen. n., with a revised key to genera of African Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 1929: 1-37.


 * Bolton, B. & Fisher, B.L. 2011. Taxonomy of Afrotropical and West Palaearctic ants of the ponerine genus Hypoponera Santschi. Zootaxa 2843: 1-118.


 * Fisher, B.L. 1997. Biogeography and ecology of the ant fauna of Madagascar. Journal of Natural History 31: 269-302. [ii.1997.]


 * Fisher, B.L. 2000. The Malagasy fauna of Strumigenys. Pp. 612-696: in Bolton, B. The ant tribe Dacetini. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65: 1028 pp.


 * Fisher, B.L. 2005. A new species of Discothyrea Roger from Mauritius and a new species of Proceratium from Madagascar. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 56: 657-667.


 * Fisher, B.L. 2006. Boloponera vicans gen. n. and sp. n. and two new species of the Plectroctena genus group. Myrmecologische Nachrichten 8: 111-118.


 * Fisher, B.L. 2007. A new species of Probolomyrmex from Madagascar (pp. 146-152). In Snelling, R.R., Fisher, B.L. & Ward, P.S. (eds). Advances in ant systematics: homage to E.O. Wilson – 50 years of contributions. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 80: 690 pp.


 * Fisher, B.L. 2009. Two new dolichoderine ant genera from Madagascar: Aptinoma gen. n. and Ravavy gen. n. Zootaxa 2118: 37-52.


 * Fisher, B.L. & Bolton, B. 2007. The ant genus Pseudaphomomyrmex Wheeler, 1920 a junior synonym of Tapinoma Foerster, 1850. Zootaxa 1427: 65-68.


 * Fisher, B.L. & Cover, S.P. 2007. Ants of North America. A Guide to the Genera: 194 pp. University of California Press.


 * Fisher, B.L. & Robertson, H.G. 1999. Silk production by adult workers of the ant Melissotarsus emeryi in South African fynbos. Insectes Sociaux 46: 78-83.


 * Fisher, B.L. & Smith, M.A. 2008. A revision of Malagasy species of Anochetus Mayr and Odontomachus Latreille. PLoSONE 3 (5): 1-23.


 * LaPolla, J. S.; Fisher, B. L. 2005. A remarkable new species of Acropyga (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Gabon, with a key to the Afrotropical species. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 56(4): 601-605


 * LaPolla, J.S., Cheng, C.H. & Fisher, B.L. 2010. Taxonomic revision of the ant genus Paraparatrechina in the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions. Zootaxa 2387: 1-27.


 * Saux, C.; Fisher, B. L.; Spicer, G. S. 2004. Dracula ant phylogeny as inferred by nuclear 28S rDNA sequences and implications for ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Amblyoponinae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol 33: 457-468


 * Ward, P.S., Brady, S.G., Fisher, B.L. & Schultz, T.R. 2010. Phylogeny and biogeography of Dolichoderinae ants: effects of data partitioning and relict taxa on historical inference. Systematic Biology 59: 342-362.


 * Yoshimura, M. & Fisher, B.L. 2007. A revision of male ants of the Malagasy region: key to subfamilies and treatment of the genera of Ponerinae. Zootaxa 1654: 21-40.


 * Yoshimura, M. & Fisher, B.L. 2009. A revision of the male ants of the Malagasy region: key to genera of the subfamily Proceratiinae. Zootaxa 2216: 1-21.


 * Yoshimura, M. & Fisher, B.L. 2011. A revision of the male ants of the Malagasy region: key to genera of the subfamily Dolichoderinae. Zootaxa 2794: 1-34.