Name Erich Wasmann | ||
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Books Comparative Studies in the Psychology of Ants and of Higher Animals | ||
Erich Wasmann (29 May 1859 − 27 February 1931) was an Austrian (born in South Tyrol) entomologist, specializing in ants and termites, and Jesuit priest. He described the phenomenon known as Wasmannian mimicry. Wasmann was a supporter of evolution, although he did not accept the productivity of natural selection, the evolution of humans from other animals, or universal common descent of all life. Rather, he believed that common ancestry was restricted to what he called "natural species" which were generally larger groups than species (which he called "systematic species"), genera, or even families. His natural species he identified with the "paleontological species" of Melchior Neumayr. Wasmann also was involved in a long-running dispute with Ernst Haeckel over Monism. His father was the painter Friedrich Wasmann.
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Collection
His collection of Formicidae, Isoptera, myrmecophile and termitophile Coleoptera( especially Staphylinidae) is in the Maastricht Natural History Museum
Namesakes
From 1936 to 1994, a biological journal variously called The Wasmann Club Collector, The Wasmann Collector or the The Wasmann Journal of Biology was published by the University of San Francisco with notable editors that included Edward L. Kessel and Robert T. Orr.