Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht

Erich Wasmann was born in Tyrol, in the year Charles Darwin published 'The origin of species': 1859. In 1872 he joined the German Jesuits. Although he was referred to as the 'beetle father' following his first publication, the 289 publications which were to follow changed this to 'the ant father'.

[original photo from collection Wasmann]

The collecting of ants was not his prime objective. In particular, Wasmann was interested in those other inhabitants of ant nests referred to as myrmecophiles. Wasmann was a pioneer in this field, and managed to build up a unique collection of beetles, butterflies, mites, bugs and aphids which lived in ant nests.

he collection comprises, in addition to more than 1,000 ant species and in excess of 200 termite species, more than 2,000 species of myrmecophiles. On the basis of these, Wasmann described 933 new species. Most specimens are dried but some of them are preserved in alcohol. In his studies Wasmann of course confronted the question about the origin of the mostly highly specialised myrmecophiles. It is Wasmann's merit that, although the Church had not generally accepted Darwin's theory of evolution, he did accept it. In this he was far ahead of his (religious) contemporaries !

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