Roy R. Snelling (September 30, 1934,

Turlock, California Turlock is a city in Stanislaus County, California, United States. Its estimated 2019 population of 73,631 made it the second-largest city in Stanislaus County after Modesto. History Founded on December 22, 1871, by prominent grain farmer J ...

- April 21, 2008, on expedition in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

) was an internationally renowned American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who studied Hymenoptera, mainly

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,0 ...

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s and

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

s. He was the emeritus collections manager at the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

where he worked for over 30 years, joining the museum in 1963 and retiring in 1993. He dedicated his professional life to making

insect biodiversity Insect biodiversity accounts for a large proportion of all biodiversity on the planet—over half of the estimated 1.5 million organism species described are classified as insects. Species diversity Estimates of the total number of insect spec ...

better known and appreciated. As a foremost

myrmecologist Myrmecology (; from Greek: μύρμηξ, ''myrmex'', "ant" and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a branch of entomology focusing on the scientific study of ants. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and ...

, he is credited with many important finds of rare or new ant species, such as the first ''Aphaenogaster cockerelli'' as ''Novomessor cockerelli'' colony in California, ''Myrmecocystus tenuinodis'' Snelling 1976 (the honeypot ant), ''Neivamyrmex wilsoni'' Snelling & Snelling 2007, and ''Myrmecocystus wheeleri'', named by Snelling after the noted myrmecologist

William Morton Wheeler William Morton Wheeler (March 19, 1865 – April 19, 1937) was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and Harvard professor. Biography Early life and education William Morton Wheeler was born on March 19, 1865, to parents Julius Morton Wheeler ...

, who was also

William Steel Creighton William Steel Creighton (April 3, 1902, Philadelphia – July 23, 1973, Alexandria Bay) was an American myrmecologist and taxonomist. His work focused on ants of North America, including an extensive revision of their systematics published in 1 ...

's academic adviser. Snelling wrote that he was much influenced by W. S. Creighton's important 1950 volume ''The Ants of North America''. In his career, Snelling would collaborate many times with Creighton, whose ant collection is now housed at the Los Angeles county museum. Snelling studied at junior college in Modesto, California, but dropped out to become self-educated. Before going to the Los Angeles County museum, he spent time in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

(1959) and as an inspector with the

California Department of Food and Agriculture The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is a cabinet-level agency in the government of California. Established in 1919 by the California State Legislature and signed into law by Governor William Stephens, the Department of Food a ...

. Snelling also studied briefly at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

but did not complete the graduate program. Together with

Charles Leonard Hogue Charles Leonard Hogue (1935 - 1992) was an American entomologist. Hogue was Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. He wrote numerous popular and technical pap ...

, Snelling was a technical adviser for the Academy Award-winning documentary

The Hellstrom Chronicle ''The Hellstrom Chronicle'' is an American film released in 1971 which combines elements of documentary, science fiction, horror and apocalyptic prophecy to present a gripping satirical depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and in ...

.The New York Times Movies - The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) Production Credits
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References

External links

List of published papers by Roy Snelling

Published papers by Roy Snelling, with pdfs

Roy Snelling obituary. ''Los Angeles Times''. May 12, 2008.
1934 births 2008 deaths Hymenopterists American entomologists Myrmecologists 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub

See also

References

External links