Edwin O'Neill Willis (18 January 1935 – 11 April 2015) was an American ornithologist who studied the birds of Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Biography

Willis was born on 18 January 1935, the son of Andrew Nelson Willis and Verna Fleming. He was raised on a farm in

Russellville, Alabama Russellville is a city in Franklin County in the U.S. state of Alabama. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,855, up from 9,830 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Franklin County. History After the War of 1812, ...

. Willis was interested in birds from an early age and published his first article in 1949 when he was 14 years old. He graduated with a BSc. in biology from the

Virginia Polytechnic Institute The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

Blacksburg, Virginia Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg and the surrounding county is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia T ...

in 1956 and then moved to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

where he obtained his master's degree two years later. His dissertation was on ''The foraging behavior of ant-tanagers in British Honduras''. He was awarded a doctorate in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964. His dissertation on ''The Behavior of Bicolored Antbirds'' was published by the university as a monograph. He then held a postdoctoral position at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

for a year. Willis married the ornithologist and entomologist Yoshika Oniki in 1970. In 1982 he was appointed to a faculty position at the

São Paulo State University São Paulo State University (Unesp, ) is a public university run by the São Paulo State Government, state government of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Unesp has a combined student body of over 45,000 spread among its 23 campuses. The ...

(Universidade Estadual Paulista) in Rio Claro, Brazil, where he taught until his retirement in 2005. He died on the 11 April 2015 in

Rio Claro, São Paulo Rio Claro is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The elevation is 613 m. It was incorporated as the village of '' São João Batista do Ribeirão Claro'' in 1827, and this incorporation is celebrated every year on June 24 as a municipal h ...

, Brazil. During his career Willis published nearly 300 scientific articles and books. Some of these were written in Portuguese. Many were co-authored with his wife. Between 1966 and 1986, he wrote more than 30 papers on

ant follower Ant followers are birds that feed by following swarms of army ants and take prey flushed by those ants. The best-known ant-followers are 18 species of antbird in the family Thamnophilidae, but other families of birds may follow ants, including t ...

s: these are bird species that feed on insects and other arthropods that are flushed by swarms of

army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limited ...

s. In recognition of his many contributions to ornithology, when in 1997 a subspecies of the dusky antbird (''Cercomacra tyrannina laeta'') was promoted to species status, it was named " Willis's antbird". His name is also used for a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the red-throated ant tanager (''Habia fuscicauda willisi''). The common scale-backed antbird had traditionally been placed in the genus '' Hylophylax'' based on the morphology but a 2007 molecular study found that it was not closely related to the other members of the genus. The common scale-backed antbird was moved to a new genus '' Willisornis'', a name chosen by the Brazilian ornithologists Carlos Agne and José Fernando Pacheco to honour Willis.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Edwin O'Neill 1935 births 2015 deaths People from Russellville, Alabama American ornithologists Virginia Tech alumni Louisiana State University alumni Academic staff of the São Paulo State University American emigrants to Brazil