THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
A CONSIDERATION OF S. B. BUCKLEY’S 
“NORTH AMERICAN FORMICIDAE.”* 
WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER, 
Professor of Zoology, University of Texas. 
During the years 1866 and 1867, Mr. S. B. Buckley, who was State 
Geologist of Texas from 1874 to 1875, published descriptions of some 
sixty-seven presumably new species of ants from the United States. 
The work was undertaken without any previous training in entomology, 
and has been regarded as something of a taxonomic fiasco, f Nor could 
this have been otherwise when one reflects that there are scarcely any 
insects more difficult of analysis and description than the Formicidse. 
As Buckley lived in Texas during his study of the ants, it happens that 
some thirty-eight, or more than half of the species described, are from 
the State of the Lone Star. The area from which he drew his speci- 
mens comprises Central Texas (Travis and the neighboring counties 
west to San Saba, Mason and McCulloch counties), and the northern 
portions (Wichita and Buchanan [now Stephens] counties). This is, 
of course, a rather limited region, and hence represents only a part of 
the great ant-fauna of the State. The very different ant-fauna of the 
Trans-Pecos, as well as that of Southeastern Texas, was in great part 
unknown to Buckley. 
The sixty-seven odd descriptions are, indeed, fearfully and wonder- 
fully made. With a persistency, which at times seems almost inten- 
tional, the author selects for description the worthless, insignificant 
* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Texas, 
No. 30. 
fA study of S. B. Buckley’s character and attainments should be undertaken 
by anyone who would estimate his work properly. Some valuable notes on this 
subject have been collected by Mr. Robert T. Hill (The Present Condition of 
Knowledge of the Geology of Texas, Bull. No. 45, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1887, p. 
32 et seq). I am indebted to my friend Dr. W. B. Phillips, Director of the State 
Mineralogical Survey of Texas, for calling my attention to this interesting 
paper. 
