Jozef K.A. van Boven (1915-1997)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Institut de zoologie de l’Universite de Louvain, Belgium
On monday 7 April 1997, IUSSI lost one of her éminences grises with the passing away of professor Jozef “Joep” van Boven in his flat in Kortrijk, western Belgium. Jozef van Boven was born on 19 May 1915 in Roermond, southeastern Netherlands, as the youngest child in a family with one sister and five brothers. From his early childhood, he was overwhelmed by the rich animal life he met during his long daily excursions in the fields. After having completed highschool, he entered the catholic seminary in Roermond, where he got his priest ordination on 10 April 1943. Priesthood brought him in contact with the Jesuit fathers Wasmann and Schmitz, both well-known myrmecologists. The war, however, soon forced the young priest to a temporary life in hiding, of which coincidence brought him to the university city of Leuven, Belgium, where he came in touch with Jezuit father Albert Raignier, also a renowned myrmecologist. From his diocese in the Netherlands, he got permission to enrol at the university of Leuven as a student of biology. Here, the professional contact with the ant world started. For his main research on the taxonomy and biology of the Dorylinae, he performed extensive field work in the “Belgian Congo” of that time. In 1957, he obtained his PhD and in the same year became professor of zoology at the Catholic University of Leuven
ANT TAXONOMY
PUBLICATIONS
Boven, J. K. A. van. 1946. Le mâle de Plagiolepis vindobonensis Lomn. (Hymenopt. Formicidae). Natuurhist. Maandbl. 35: 9-10
Boven, J.K.A. van. 1959. Vliesvleugelige insekten - Hymenoptera. VI. Angeldragers (Aculeata), Mieren (Formicidae). Koninklijke Nederlandse Natuurhistorische Vereniging, Wetenschappelijke Mededelingen 30: 32 pp.
Boven, J.K.A. van. 1967. La femelle de Dorylus fimbriatus et termitarius. Natuurhistorisch Maandblad 56: 55-60. [26.iv.1967.]
Boven, J. K. A. van. 1968. La reine de Dorylus (Anomma) kohli Wasmann (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Nat. Can. (Qué.) 95: 731-739
Boven, J. K. A. van. 1970a. Myrmica faniensis, une nouvelle espèce parasite (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Bull. Ann. Soc. R. Entomol. Belg. 106: 127-132
Boven, J.K.A. van. 1970b. Vliesvleugelige insekten - Hymenoptera. VI. Angeldragers (Aculeata), Mieren (Formicidae). Koninklijke Nederlandse Natuurhistorische Vereniging, Wetenschappelijke Mededelingen K.N.N.V. 30: 52 pp. [Reissue of 1959 paper, revised keys.]
Boven, J. K. A. van. 1975. Deux nouvelles reines du genre Dorylus Fabricius (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Ann. Zool. (Warsaw) 33: 189-199
Boven, J. K. A. van; Levieux, J. 1970 [1968]. Les Dorylinae de la savane de Lamto (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Ann. Univ. Abidjan Sér. E (Écol.) 1(2): 351-358
Raignier, A.; Boven, J. K. A. van. 1955. Étude taxonomique, biologique et biométrique des Dorylus du sous-genre Anomma (Hymenoptera Formicidae). Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge Nouv. Sér. Quarto Sci. Zool. 2: 1-359