Joseph Charles Bequaert Explained

Joseph Charles Bequaert
Birth Date:	24 May 1886
Birth Place:	Torhout, Belgium
Death Place:	Amherst, Massachusetts
Fields:	malacology, entomology
Workplaces:	American Museum of Natural History and Harvard Medical School
Alma Mater:	University of Ghent

Joseph Charles Bequaert was an American naturalist of Belgian origin, born 24 May 1886 in Torhout (Belgium) and died on 12 January 1982 in Amherst, Massachusetts.^[1]

Career

Bequaert obtained a doctorate in botany at the University of Ghent in 1908. He was an entomologist, and from 1910 to 1912 he was part of la commission Belge sur la maladie du sommeil (Belgian Committee on sleeping sickness). From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a botanist in the Belgian Congo and also collected mollusks.

In 1916 he emigrated to the United States and was an associate researcher from 1917 to 1922 at the American Museum of Natural History. He became an American citizen in 1921, and taught entomology at the Harvard Medical School. From 1929 to 1956 he was Curator of Insects at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, and was Professor of Zoology from 1951 to 1956 within the same institution.

Bequaert became president of the American Malacological Union in 1954. He left his post at Harvard in 1956. From 1956 to 1960 he lectured in biology at the University of Houston. With Walter Bernard Miller (1918–2000), he published The Mollusks of the Arid Southwest in 1973.

Memberships

He was a member of various learned societies: Zoological Society of France, the Entomological Society of America, the Belgian Royal Society of Entomology, the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine, the Royal Institute of Colonial Belgium, Koninklijk Natuurwetenschappelijk Genootschap Dodonaea, and the Natural History Society of North Africa.

References in botany

Bequaert was formerly commemorated in the taxon Bequaertiodendron magalismontanum (Sond.) Heine & J.H.Hemsl. now known as Englerophytum magalismontanum (Sond.) T.D.Penn.^[2]

He was also honoured in 1993, in the naming of Normandiodendron bequaertii.^[3]

References in entomology

Bequaert was formerly commemorated in several names of ants. Note that only valid names are listed (as of July 2016).

Aenictogiton bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[4]

Anochetus bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[5]

Azteca bequaerti Wheeler, 1929 ^[6]

Camponotus confluens bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[7]

Cataulacus bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[8]

Centromyrmex bequaerti (Forel, 1913) ^[9]

Strumigenys bequaerti Santschi, 1923 ^[10]

Crematogaster bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[11]

Dorylus bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[12]

Monomorium bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[13]

Pheidole bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[14]

Phrynoponera bequaerti Wheeler, 1922 ^[15]

Tetramorium bequaerti Forel, 1913 ^[16]

References in herpetology

Bequaert is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake and two frogs:^{[17] [18]}

• Philothamnus bequaerti (Schmidt, 1923)
• Phrynobatrachus bequaerti (Barbour and Loveridge, 1929)
• Leptopelis bequaerti Loveridge, 1941

Bibliography

He published over 250 papers; over 50 of them are about molluscs.^[1]

(incomplete)

• Pilsbry HA, Bequaert J (1927). "The Aquatic Mollusks of the Belgian Congo. With a geographical and ecological account of Congo malacology". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 53 (2): 69-602. PDF.
• Bequaert J (1936). "A new North American mason-wasp from Virginia, with notes on some allied forms". Proceedings of the United States National Museum 84 (3004): 79–87.
• Bequaert J (1948). Monograph of the Strophocheilidae, neotropical family of terrestrial mollusks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. 210 pp.
• Bequaert J (1950). Studies in the Achatininae, a group of African land snails. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. 216 pp.
• Bequaert J, Miller WB (1973). The mollusks of the arid Southwest, with an Arizona checklist. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. xvi + 271 p.

Further reading

• Abbott RT (1974). American Malacologists. A National Register of Professional and Amateur Malacologists and Private Shell Collectors and Biographies of Early American Mollusk Workers Born Between 1618 and 1900, American Malacologists (Falls Church, Virginie): iv + 494 p. 

External links

• Biography by Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben and Carubie Rodgers
• Joseph Charles Bequaert Papers, circa 1922-1949 from the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Notes and References

1. [William J. Clench|Clench WJ]
2. Book: Burkhardt, Lotte . Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition . Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition . Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin . 2018 . 978-3-946292-26-5 . pdf . German . Berlin . 10.3372/epolist2018 . 187926901 . 1 January 2021.
3. 974658-1 . Normandiodendron bequaertii (De Wild.) J.Léonard . 5 November 2021.
4. Web site: Aenictogiton bequaerti - AntCat.
5. Web site: Anochetus bequaerti - AntCat.
6. Web site: Azteca bequaerti - AntCat.
7. Web site: Camponotus confluens bequaerti - AntCat.
8. Web site: Cataulacus bequaerti - AntCat.
9. Web site: Centromyrmex bequaerti - AntCat.
10. Web site: Strumigenys bequaerti - AntCat.
11. Web site: Crematogaster bequaerti - AntCat.
12. Web site: Dorylus bequaerti - AntCat.
13. Web site: Monomorium bequaerti - AntCat.
14. Web site: Pheidole bequaerti - AntCat.
15. Web site: Phrynoponera bequaerti - AntCat.
16. Web site: Tetramorium bequaerti - AntCat.
17. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Bequaert", p. 23).
18. Book: Beolens . Bo . Watkins . Michael . Grayson . Michael . amp . The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians . 2013 . Pelagic Publishing . 978-1-907807-42-8 . 21.