Weber, Neil Albert (1908-2001)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

This diverse collection includes correspondence, field notes, lecture and meeting notes, publication material, drawings, and lantern slides. It documents Weber's professional career as an internationally known myrmecologist, or ant scientist, and his wider ranging interests in entomology and ecology. There are class and lab notes for his educational period at Harvard University (A.M. 1933; Ph.D. 1935), and substantial documentation on his primary academic career at Swarthmore College (1947-1974; includes teaching records, data on the Biology Dept. and the College). His field notes, 1930s-1970s (ca. 3 lin. ft.), contain detailed observations of the many scientific expeditions he was a member of, including trips to: West Indies, 1933-1936; Colombia, 1938; Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya, 1939. He also participated in numerous American Museum of Natural History expeditions: Central Africa, 1948; Middle East, 1950, 1952; and Tropical America, 1954.

There are data for his time as visiting professor at the University of Baghdad, Iraq, 1950-1952, and his period as Scientific Attaché, Buenos Aires, for the U. S. Dept. of State, 1960-1962. Weber's contributions to polar scientific studies can be studied through his files of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Polar Research, 1958-1960 (he was on the panel on biological and medical science), as well as many numerous miscellaneous files on polar research.

Significant correspondents include:


 * Thomas Peter Bennett
 * Joseph C. Bequaert
 * William L. Brown, Jr.
 * Frank L. Campbell
 * Horace Donisthorpe
 * Alfred E. Emerson
 * Caryl Parker Haskins
 * William M. Mann
 * Michael M. Martin
 * William J. Robbins
 * Mary Talbot
 * George C. Wheeler
 * William Morton Wheele

From American Philosophical Society web site: Weber, Neal Albert (1908- ) Entomologist. Papers, ca. 1930s-1980s. ca. 19,000 items (ca. 22 lin. ft.).

Neal Weber, professor emeritus of zoology at Swarthmore, died on Jan. 21 at age 92. Weber was an internationally known expert on tropical ants. His research took him all over the world and led to more than 150 publications, including a monograph on gardening ants that won the American Philosophical Society's John F. Lewis Prize. After receiving a doctorate from Harvard in 1935, Weber embarked on a series of scientific expeditions that took him through Africa, the Middle East, South America, and the West Indies. He taught biology at the University of North Dakota for several years, then spent four years instructing military medical students during the war. Weber, the first scientific attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, came to Swarthmore in 1947. As a visiting professor in the 1950s, he started the Zoology Department at the University of Baghdad in Iraq. He retired in 1974. Swarthmore College Bulletin, Sept 2001

PUBLICATIONS

 * Weber, N. A. 1934a. Notes on neotropical ants, including the descriptions of new forms. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 4: 22-59


 * Weber, N. A. 1934b. A new Strumigenys from Illinois (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche (Camb.) 41: 63-65


 * Weber, N. A. 1935. The biology of the thatching ant, Formica rufa obscuripes Forel, in North Dakota. Ecol. Monogr. 5: 165-206


 * Weber, N. A. 1937. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part l. New forms. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 7: 378-409


 * Weber, N. A. 1938a. New ants from stomachs of Bufo marinus L. and Typhlops reticulatus (L). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 31: 207-210


 * Weber, N. A. 1938b. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part IV. Additional new forms. Part V. The Attini of Bolivia. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 9: 154-206


 * Weber, N. A. 1939a. New ants of rare genera and a new genus of ponerine ants. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 32: 91-104


 * Weber, N. A. 1939b. Description of new North American species and subspecies of Myrmica Latreille (Hym.: Formicidae). Lloydia 2: 144-152


 * Weber, N. A. 1940b. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part VI. Key to Cyphomyrmex, new Attini and a new guest ant. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 11: 406-427


 * Weber, N. A. 1940c. Rare ponerine genera in Panama and British Guiana (Hym.: Formicidae). Psyche (Camb.) 47: 75-84


 * Weber, N. A. 1941a. Four new genera of Ethiopian and Neotropical Formicidae. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 34: 183-194


 * Weber, N. A. 1941b. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part VII. The Barro Colorado Island, Canal Zone, species. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 12: 93-130


 * Weber, N. A. 1941c. The rediscovery of the queen of Eciton (Labidus) coecum Latr. (Hym.: Formicidae). Am. Midl. Nat. 26: 325-329


 * Weber, N. A. 1942b. New doryline, cerapachyine and ponerine ants from the Imatong Mountains, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 44: 40-49


 * Weber, N. A. 1942c. The genus Thaumatomyrmex Mayr with description of a Venezuelan species (Hym.: Formicidae). Bol. Entomol. Venez. 1: 65-71


 * Weber, N. A. 1943a. The queen of a British Guiana Eciton and a new ant garden Solenopsis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 45: 88-91


 * Weber, N. A. 1943b. New ants from Venezuela and neighboring countries. Bol. Entomol. Venez. 2: 67-78


 * Weber, N. A. 1943d. The ants of the Imatong Mountains, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 93: 263-389


 * Weber, N. A. 1944b. The neotropical coccid-tending ants of the genus Acropyga Roger. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 37: 89-122


 * Weber, N. A. 1945. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part VIII. The Trinidad, B. W. I., species. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 16: 1-88


 * Weber, N. A. 1946a. Two common ponerine ants of possible economic significance, Ectatomma tuberculatum (Olivier) and E. ruidum Roger. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 48: 1-16


 * Weber, N. A. 1946c. The biology of the fungus-growing ants. Part IX. The British Guiana species. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 17: 114-172


 * [[Media:Weber 1947b.pdf|Weber, N. A. 1947b. A revision of the North American ants of the genus Myrmica Latreille with a synopsis of the Palearctic species. I. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 40: 437-474 PDF]]


 * Weber, N. A. 1948a. A revision of the North American ants of the genus Myrmica Latreille with a synopsis of the Palearctic species. II. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 41: 267-308


 * Weber, N. A. 1948b. Studies on the fauna of Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire and the Venezuelan islands: No. 14. Ants from the Leeward Group and some other Caribbean localities. Natuurwet. Studiekring Suriname Ned. Antillen 5: 78-86


 * Weber, N. A. 1949a. New African ants of the genera Cerapachys, Phryacaces, and Simopone. Am. Mus. Novit. 1396: 1-9


 * Weber, N. A. 1949b. New ponerine ants from equatorial Africa. Am. Mus. Novit. 1398: 1-9


 * Weber, N. A. 1949d. A new Panama Eciton (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1441: 1-8


 * Weber, N. A. 1950a. The African species of the genus Oligomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1442: 1-19


 * Weber, N. A. 1950c. A revision of the North American ants of the genus Myrmica Latreille with a synopsis of the Palearctic species. III. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 43: 189-226


 * Weber, N. A. 1950d. New Trinidad Myrmicinae, with a note on Basiceros Schulz (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1465: 1-6


 * Weber, N. A. 1952a. Studies on African Myrmicinae, I (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1548: 1-32


 * Weber, N. A. 1952b. Biological notes on Dacetini (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1554: 1-7


 * Weber, N. A. 1958a. Nomenclatural notes on Proatta and Atta (Hym.: Formicidae). Entomol. News 69: 7-13


 * Weber, N. A. 1958b. Nomenclatural changes in Trachymyrmex (Hym.: Formicidae). Entomol. News 69: 49-55


 * Weber, N. A. 1958d. Synonymies and types of Apterostigma (Hym: Formicidae). Entomol. News 69: 243-251


 * Weber, N. A. 1958e. Some attine synonyms and types (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 60: 259-264


 * Weber, N. A. 1966a. The subgenus Cyphomannia Weber 1938 of Cyphomyrmex Mayr 1862, reinstated, and systematic notes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Entomol. News 77: 166-168


 * Weber, N. A. 1967. Synonyms of Trachymyrmex bugnioni Forel and Trachymyrmex diversus Mann (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 69: 273-274


 * Weber, N. A. 1982. Fungus ants. Pp. 255-363 in: Hermann, H. R. (ed.) Social insects. Volume 4. New York: Academic Press, xiii + 385 pp.


 * Weber, N. A.; Anderson, J. L. 1950. Studies on central African ants of the genus Pseudolasius Emery (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Am. Mus. Novit. 1443: 1-7