Roy Snelling

Infobox Scientist
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name = Roy R. Snelling


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birth_date = September 30, 1934
birth_place = Turlock, California
death_date = April 21, 2008
death_place = Kenya
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nationality = United States of America
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fields = Entomology
workplaces = Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
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known_for = Hymenopteran studies
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influences = William Steel Creighton
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Roy R. Snelling (September 30, 1934, Turlock, California - April 21, 2008, on expedition in Kenya) was an internationally renowned American entomologist who studied Hymenoptera, mainly ants, wasps, and bees. He was the emeritus collections manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 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 better known and appreciated.

As a foremost myrmecologist, he is credited with many important finds of rare or new ant species, such as the first "Nobomessor cockerellis" 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, who was also William Steele Creighton's academic advisor. Snelling wrote that he was much influenced by W. S. Creighton's important 1950 volume "The Ants of North America". [Snelling, R. R., B. L. Fisher, and P. S. Ward. (eds). (2007). Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): homage to E. O. Wilson – 50 years of contributions. "Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute", 80: 1-670.] 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 U. S. Army (1959) and as an inspector with the California Department of Agriculture.

Snelling also studied briefly at the University of Kansas but did not complete the graduate program. Perhaps his Cherokee Indian blood that made him such a fine field worker in many countries and regions of the world also made him impatient with the slow ritual of the classroom.

References

External links

* [http://www.nhm.org/research/entomology/associates/snellingpubs.html List of published papers by Roy Snelling]
* [http://atbi.biosci.ohio-state.edu:210/hymenoptera/authors.go_option?author_id=765&module=pub_list Published papers by Roy Snelling, with pdfs]
* [http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-snelling12-2008may12,0,2276662.story Roy Snelling obituary. "Los Angeles Times". May 12, 2008.]