George Arnold (1881-1962)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Myrmecologist of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia.
Entomologist, specilising in taxonomy of aculeate Hymenoptera (particularly ants, sphecid wasps and pompilid wasps). Worked for many years at the museum in Bulawayo in what was then Rhodesia.
"George Arnold, O.B.E, D.Sc., A.R.C.S., F.R.S.S.A., elected to Honorary Fellowship in 1949, was born in Hong Kong in 1881. He was educated partly in Germany and France and was a good linguist. From the Royal College of Science he was appointed to the Department of Cytology and Cancer Research at Liverpool and worked on Hymenoptera as a hobby. In 1911 he became Curator, and later Director, of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo. There he specialised in Aculeate Hymenoptera and published a long and valuable series of taxonomic papers, the last of which was only in proof at the time of his death." (Varley, 1963).
George Arnold was the Museum's curator and director prior to World War II. Shortly after Zimbabwe's independence, his collection was sent to the South African Museum, Cape Town, in exchange for two stone eagles, symbols of the nation, that were originally found in the Great Zimbabwe ruins.
ANT TAXONOMY
Although his primary interest was in the ants of southern Africa, George Arnold, Curator of the Rhodesia Museum, Bulawayo, produced an extensive Monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa, published in parts between 1915 and 1924, with an appendix in 1926. In addition to his own descriptions, Arnold provided translations of papers originally written, for instance, in German, French or Italian. As a fair number of the species he examined had been described from the Congo Basin, if not from West Africa, his catalogue is a useful source of descriptions.
PUBLICATIONS
Arnold, G. 1915. A monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa. Part I. Ponerinae, Dorylinae. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 14: 1-159
Arnold, G. 1920b. [Untitled. Monomorium (Xeromyrmex) Salomonis L., stirps ocellatum (Arnold).]. P. 377 in: Santschi, F. Formicides africains et américains nouveaux. Ann. Soc. Entomol Fr. 88:361-390.
Arnold, G. 1922. A monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa. Part V. Myrmicinae. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 14: 579-674
Arnold, G. 1924. A monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa. Part VI. Camponotinae. Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 14: 675-766
Arnold, G. 1951. The genus Hagensia Forel (Formicidae). J. Entomol. Soc. South. Afr. 14: 53-56
Arnold, G. 1952b. The genus Terataner Emery (Formicidae). J. Entomol. Soc. South. Afr. 15: 129-131
REFERENCE
Summers, R.F.H. 1962. Occasional papers of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia 26(B): 913-914, portrait.
Phiny, E.C.G. 1963. Nature, London 199:429-430.