| FORMICIDAE in the
Canadian National Collection of Insects (CNC)
AAFC, K.W. Neatby Building
960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, K1A 0C6, Canada
J.T.Huber
(Acting Curator of Hymenoptera)
The CNC pinned ant collection is arranged in foam-bottomed
unit trays occupying about 100 USNM-style drawers, but not all
drawers are full by any means. The collection is mainly Nearctic
but contains material from other regions as well. Canadian coverage
of species is good, the rest of North America (USA) is highly
variable, and coverage of world fauna is generally poor. The
Neotropical region has the next best coverage. There is also
an ethanol collection of about 3520 vials (breakdown given below),
210 of which contain specimens determined at least to genus.
History of the collection
Since the beginning of the CNC in the late 1800's ants were
collected even though a specialist had never been assigned to
ants in the Department of Agriculture (which houses the CNC).
A general directive to collect all insects was in place for
many years and no particular effort was made to collect ants
so the collection remained relatively small. In the late 1960's
Doug Miller and Bill Mason arranged for William Creighton to
donate a synoptic collection of ants to the CNC. Roy Snelling
curated this and as a result we have a fairly good North American
(especially Canadian) collection, consisting in large part of
Creighton material. Mike Ivanochko, a technician in the Hymenoptera
unit, did identifications for many years in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was followed by another technician, Jocelyn Gill, who was
responsible for ant identifications until 1999, when she was
assigned to another Unit. Neither, however, had time to add
material to the pinned collection, though quite a few ethanol
vials of unsorted ants were accumulated. During the past 20
years a few specialists have come on CANACOLL grants to curate
the collection, and others have borrowed material for study.
Gary Umphrey added specimens and worked on some parts of the
collection while completing his Ph.D. at nearby Carleton University.
He has on loan several drawers of unsorted material for identification.
Some material (Leptothorax) was borrowed for revision in 1990
by André Francoeur. In 1993, Donat Agosti spent some
days working on the collection and borrowed a few male ants
for study. John Lattke identified quite a bit of our pinned
Neotropical holdings. Our most recent visitor, Mark Deyrup in
1998, did a lot of curation and provided an excellent report
assessing and documenting the status of the collection. Part
of his report is quoted below.
“Status of the collection
This is an important world collection, with hundreds of identified
species and hundreds that await identification, representing
all the larger ant genera and many of the smaller genera as
well. The North American fauna is strongest in regional representation.
There is a good core of securely identified specimens, including
many identified by well-known ant specialists, including Marion
Smith, W. Creighton, A. Francoeur, R. Snelling, and G. Umphrey.
The collection has many specimens of historical value, both
as records of ant distribution more than 50 years ago, and as
documentation of the species concepts of M. Smith and W. Creighton.
The physical condition of the collection is excellent. In addition
to mounted specimens, there is a large collection of specimens
(mostly unidentified) in alcohol."
"Needs of the collection. The ant collection has gone unrevised
for so long that many of the names used in the collection have
been changed. This seriously impedes the usefulness of the collection
for identifying (by comparison) specimens sent in for identification.
The collection could not be used in its present form to document
the distribution of species of ants in Canada, or anywhere else,
unless one were to laboriously check the names and, in some
genera, the identifications. Many species, including easily
obtained species, are still represented by only 3 or 4 workers,
all from a single site. Variation makes it particularly important
to have good series of ants, both for the purposes of identification
of specimens, and for showing geographic patterns within the
fauna. Finally, there are large numbers of valuable specimens
that should be organized, identified, and added to the collection.
Many of the unidentified and unincorporated specimens are from
collecting expeditions to unusual habitats where few biologists
have studied the ant fauna. These are especially desirable as
specimens, and also constitute a considerable unrealized investment."
"The CNC ant collection, which has never that the attentions
of a specialist for more than a few days at a time, is a perfect
example of chronically inactive collection. Unless there is
some reason to believe that a specialist will become dedicated
to the ant collection, an alternative strategy is to make a
list that makes clear the deficiencies in the collection. At
the moment, the CNC has relatively little in the collection
of identified ant specimens to attract specialized myrmecologists
to come and work in the collection. Much of the most interesting
material remains in the unsorted specimens, most of which are
in alcohol. The ants from expeditions made by CNC scientists
are especially exciting. It would make sense to sort the pinned
material to genus level, and keep these unidentified specimens
separated by region, as is currently done. The presence of this
material should also be posted to foster mutualistic interactions
with specialists"
In the time he was here, Mark managed to tabulate and, where
needed, correct the nomenclature of 138 species. He recommended
that the process be continued, by a qualified graduate student
for example, until the collection were completely tabulated.
So far we have not been able to do this.
Despite the shortfalls of the collection, we hope that more
students of ants will visit the CNC to work on the collection
and perhaps find some hidden treasures for study.
Ethanol collection (# vials by region)
CANADA: Alberta - 88, British Columbia - 330, Manitoba - 30,
Maritime provinces - 260, Ontario - 594, Quebec - 133, Saskatchewan
- 60, North West Territories - 60, Yukon - 2.
USA - 576
Neotropical - 380
Palaearctic - 85
Afrotropical - 130
NIGERIA - 385 (from D. Eidt, coll. in 1963)
Oriental - 24
NEPAL - 134 (1967 CNC expedition)
Australia - 22
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