The American entomologist Charles Duncan Michener was born in Pasadena, CA, September 22, 1918. Much of his career has been devoted to the systematics and natural history of the bees. His first peer-reviewed publication was in 1934, at the age of 16. He received his B.S. in 1939 and his Ph.D. in Entomology in 1941, from the University of California, Berkeley. He remained in California until 1942, when he became an Assistant Curator of Lepidoptera at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In 1944 he published a classification system for bees that was soon adopted worldwide, and was in use until 1993 and 1995, when he co-authored new classifications. From 1943 to 1946, Michener also served as a First Lieutenant and Captain in the United States Army Sanitary Corps, where he researched insect-borne diseases, and described the life cycle of the common chigger. Michener joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 1948 as Associate Professor of Entomology. He was chairman of the Entomology Department from 1949 to 1961, and then again from 1972 to 1975. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1955, and again in 1966. He was awarded the Watkins Distinguished Professor of Entomology in 1958, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965, and became Director of the Snow Entomological Museum (now a division within the University of Kansas Natural History Museum) in 1974. In February of 2001, the Association of American Publishers gave its prestigious R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional Reference or Scholarly Work of 2000 to Michener's opus, The Bees of the World. Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... In biology, systematics is the study of the diversity of organism characteristics, and especially how they relate evolutionarily. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines. ... Families Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Halictidae Megachilidae Melittidae Stenotritidae Bee collecting pollen Bees (a lineage within the superfamily Apoidea) are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. ... A Bachelor of Science (B.S., B.Sc. ... Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as the University of California at Berkeley, UC Berkeley, Cal, California, or Berkeley) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... Super Families Butterflies Hesperioidea Papilionoidea Moths Micropterigoidea Heterobathmioidea Eriocranioidea Acanthopteroctetoidea Lophocoronoidea Neopseustoidea Mnesarchaeoidea Hepialoidea Nepticuloidea Incurvarioidea Palaephatoidea Tischeriodea Simaethistoidea Tineoidea Gracillarioidea Yponomeutoidea Gelechioidea Zygaenoidea Sesioidea Cossoidea Tortricoidea Choreutoida Urodoidea Galacticoidea Schreckensteinioidea Epermenioidea Pterophoroidea Aluctoidea Immoidea Axioidea Hyblaeoidea Thyridoidea Whalleyanoidea Pyraloidea Mimallonoidea Lasiocampoidea Geometroidea Drepanoidea Bombycoidea Calliduloidae Hedyloidea Noctuoidea Families About... The American Museum of Natural History is a landmark of Manhattans Upper West Side in New York, USA, at 79th Street and Central Park West. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World[1], Gotham [2], Metropolis Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,214. ... Binomial name Trombicula alfreddugesi Oudemans, 1920 Harvest mites (Trombicula alfreddugesi; also known as chiggers, red bugs, Trombiculid mites, or Scrub-itch mites) are mites in the family Trombiculidae that live in berry patches, tall grass and weeds, woodland edges, pine straw, leaves, and treebark. ... The University of Kansas (often referred to as just KU or Kansas) is an institution of higher learning located in Lawrence, Kansas. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the largest trade association of publishing companies in the United States. ...

Michener's work on social evolution in the Halictidae in the 1960's helped set the stage for the sociobiology revolution of the 1970s, with E. O. Wilson relying to a great degree on Michener's concepts regarding the paths from solitary to highly social life. Along with his research activities and teaching, Michener was the editor of the academic journals Evolution from 1962 to 1964, the associate editor of the Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics from 1970 to 1985, and the American editor of Insectes Sociaux from 1954 to 1955, again from 1970 to 1985. He served as President of the Kansas Entomological Society in 1950, President of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 1967, President of the Society of Systematic Zoology in 1968, and President of the American Society of Naturalists in 1978. In 1977 he began his term as the President of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects and organized the 9th International Congress in 1982. He is also an honorary member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. At the time of his retirement in 1989, Michener had already published over 340 articles and books, primarily on bee systematics and biology; in the same year, a fund was started with the University of Kansas Endowment Association for a scientific lecture series in Michener's name. As of 2006, Dr. Michener is still active and continues to publish. Subfamilies Halictinae Nomiinae Nomioidinae Rophitinae Halictidae are a family of the order Hymenoptera of small to midsize bees which are usually dark colored, often metallic. ... Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines that attempts to explain behaviour in all species by considering the evolutionary advantages of social behaviours. ... Edward O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson was born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). ... Evolution, the International Journal of Organic Evolution, is a bimonthly scientific journal that publishes significant new results of empirical or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanics, or concepts of evolutionary phenomena and events. ... The Society for the Study of Evolution was formed in the United States in 1946 to promote evolution and the integration of various fields of science concerned with evolution and to organize the publication of a scientific journal to report on new research on evolution across a variety of fileds. ... The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (Portuguese: Academia Brasileira de Ciências or ABC) is the national academy of Brazil. ...

Michener's long career has also included the training of over 80 M.S. and Ph.D. students (to whom he is simply known as "Mich") who have had productive and often notable careers in entomology and taxonomy, among them Paul R. Ehrlich. Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a Stanford University professor and a renowned entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera (butterflies). ...

Selected References

• Michener, C.D. (1944). Comparative external morphology, phylogeny, and a classification of the bees. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 82: 151-326.
• Michener, C.D. (1952). The Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) of the Western Hemisphere - Morphology, Phylogeny, and Classification. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 98: 337-501.
• Michener, C.D. (1953). Comparative morphological and systematic studies of bee larvae with a key to the families of hymenopterous larvae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 35: 987-1102.
• Michener, C.D. (1954). The bees of Panama. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 104: 1-176.
• Michener, C.D., Sokal, R.R. (1957). A quantitative approach to a problem in classification. Evolution 11: 130-162.
• Sakagami, S.F., Michener, C.D. (1962). The Nest Architecture of the Sweat Bees (Halictinae), a Comparative Study. University of Kansas Press. 135 pp.
• Michener, C.D. (1964). Evolution of the nests of bees. American Zoologist 4: 227-239.
• Michener, C.D. (1965). A classification of the bees of the Australian and South Pacific regions. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 130: 1-362.
• Michener, C.D. (1974). The Social Behavior of the Bees. Harvard University Press. 404 pp.
• Michener, C.D. (1975). A taxonomic study of African allodapine bees (Hymenoptera, Anthophoridae, Ceratinini). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 155: 67-240.
• Michener, C.D. (1979). Biogeography of the bees. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 66: 277-347.
• Michener, C.D. (1990). Classification of the Apidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 54: 75-153.
• Roig-Alsina, A., Michener, C.D. (1993). Studies of the phylogeny and classification of long-tongued bees. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 55: 124-162.
• Michener, C.D., McGinley, R.J., Danforth, B.N. (1994). The Bee Genera of North and Central America. Smithsonian Institution Press. 209 pp.
• Alexander, B.A., Michener, C.D. (1995). Phylogenetic studies of the families of short-tongued bees. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 55: 377-424.
• Michener, C.D. (2000). The Bees of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. 913 pp.