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Abstract
William B. Muchmore (1920-2017) was the most influential worker on cave pseudoscorpions in North America and a globally-recognized expert on this arachnid order. Aside from brief stints in herpetological embryology and isopod taxonomy, he dedicated his 62-year career to the study of pseudoscorpions, focusing on their taxonomy. He described 278 new species, of which 167 were from caves. The majority of North American cave pseudoscorpions were either initially described or revised by him. He also wrote on the phoretic habits of pseudoscorpions, and speculated that cave pseudoscorpion distributions may be influenced by troglophilic rodents and bats. A complete bibliography of his scientific papers is provided.
William ("Bill") Breuleux Muchmore (Fig. 1) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 20, 1920. He was the first child of Oliver Charles Muchmore (1892-1968) and Ruby Breuleux (1895-1958), both of Ohio. His family has a long history in the United States (U.S.), with ancestry on his mother's side tracing to Philip Frederick Breuleux (born 1830, Busserel, Haute Saône, France; immigrated in 1860 to Sycamore, Ohio), and on his father's side to John Muchmore (born 1692, Windsor, Connecticut Colony; now the State of Connecticut). He had two children with his wife Marjorie Murrin: Susan Muchmore (born 1947) and Patricia Muchmore (born 1950). Marjorie predeceased Muchmore in 2007 at the age of 85. He died May 11,2017 at the age of 96. At the time of his death he was an author of 145 publications on pseudoscorpions and was internationally recognized as a global expert on this arachnid order.
In his youth, Muchmore achieved the status of Eagle Scout, a path that likely influenced his interest in biology and fostered his mind into becoming a broadly-trained naturalist. After completing a B.A. at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, in 1942, from 1943-1946 he served with the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the southwest Pacific theatre of World War II (NARA, 2005). After the war ended he returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Washington University, Saint Louis, Mo., where he received his Ph.D. in 1950. He then moved to New York, where he spent his entire academic career at the University of Rochester, going up the ranks from Instructor (1950-1952), to Assistant Professor (19521958), to Associate Professor (1958-1970), to Professor (1970-1988),...