Acknowledgments and Collaborators
Funding for the ant work being done by the MEM in Alabama and Mississippi is from several sources including the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, under Project No. MIS-012040, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at Mississippi State University, with support from State Project MIS-311080, NSF Grants BSR-9024810 and DFB-9200856, the Tombigbee National Forest (U.S. Forest Service), the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, Mississippi Natural Heritage Program Research Grant, USDA Forest Service Agreement No. 08-99-07-CCS-010, the William H. Cross Expedition Fund, and primarily by the USDA-ARS Areawide Management of Imported Fire Ant Project. Additionally, special cooperation has been provided by State Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, the Natchez Trace Parkway, and from various private landowners in both Alabama and Mississippi.
The Principal Investigator for much of the work done with ants by the MEM is Richard Brown (MEM Director). The majority of the field work and research has been done by Joe MacGown (MEM research technicican/scientific illustrator) and JoVonn G. Hill (MEM research associate). Past and ongoing formicid survey work would not have been possible without the aid of many other individuals who have either collected ants, verified identifications, or pinned and labeled specimens. Thanks to the many individuals who have collected ants in this area, especially, Terence Schiefer (curator at MEM), Blake Layton (MSU extension entomologist), Jason Forster (former graduate student at Auburn University Entomological Museum, AL - studied ants of AL), James Trager (Shaw Nature Preserve, MO.), J. T. Vogt (USDA, Stoneville, MS), and Valerie Behan-Pelletier (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). Thanks to Stefan Cover (Harvard University, MA), Mark Deyrup (Archbold Biological Station, FL), Lloyd Davis (Gainesville, FL), Mark DuBois (Illinois Central College), James C. Trager, Gary Umphrey (University of Guelph, Ontario, and Phil Ward (UC Davis) for verifying many of the species identifications. The list of Missouri ants was compiled by James Trager. Thanks to various ant researchers who have given useful comments about the site including James Wetterer (Florida Atlantic University), David Lubertazzai (Harvard), and others. Thanks to Rebekah Jones and James Lewis, both student workers, who pinned and labeled many an ant!
Drawings of ants for the keys were done by Joe MacGown using a drawing tube mounted on a Leica MZ16 stereomicroscope. Most of the photographs of ants were taken by MacGown with a Media Cybernetics Evolution MP color digital camera mounted on a Leica MZ12.5 microscope and later with a Leica DFC 420 digital camera on a Leica Z16 microscope. Images were shot at different focus levels and then put together into single images with the use of Image Pro Plus software or with an Automontage module that is included with the Leica Application Suite (LAS). James Lewis, a student worker from 2006-2009, took many photos as well. Other photographs are used, with permission, from AntWeb, a web site about ants of the world with amazing photos.
