Corresponding author: Michael S. Engel (
It is with admiration and fondness that we dedicate this special issue of
Kumar grew up in Dehra Dun in northern India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. His father was a physician, and was also one of the first Indians to be commissioned in the British army, in fact serving as a major in World War I. Kumar went to Agra University, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1950, and shortly thereafter a Master of Science degree from Lucknow University in 1952. He then served as a Research Assistant (1952–1954) to Mittan Lal Roonwal (1908–1990) at the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, where he developed his interest in
At the University of Chicago, Kumar began a comprehensive revision of the world genera of drywood termites, still the major reference on the family
Despite Kumar’s administrative and teaching loads, perhaps the most impressive achievements are that he continued to produce influential research, funded by National Science Foundation research grants. It was during this time, for example, that Kumar Krishna and Frances M. Weesner organized and contributed to the seminal, two-volume work,
It is safe to say that no one today has such comprehensive knowledge of termites globally, particularly their systematics, taxonomy, morphology, biogeography, and the fossil record. When Emerson was working, for example, there was only one Cretaceous termite known,
Putting his considerable academic accomplishments aside, Kumar is one of the most positive, jovial, and generous individuals we know. Now in his eighties, his enthusiasm and energy for termite research seem tireless. When he worked on the
1. Roonwal ML, Krishna K (1955) Systematics of Oriental termites. II. A new species,
2. Krishna K (1956) Two new species of
3. Krishna K (1960) Social insects. In: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology [Volume 14]. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 405–407.
4. Krishna K (1961) A generic revision and phylogenetic study of the family Kalotermitidae (Isoptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 122(4): 303–408.
5. Krishna K, Emerson AE (1962) New species of the genus
6. Krishna K (1962) New species and a hitherto undescribed imago caste of the genus
7. Krishna K (1962) New species of the genera
8. Krishna K (1963) The evolution of the family Kalotermitidae, Isoptera. Symposia Genetica et Biologica Italica [Atti IV Congresso U.I.E.I.S., Pavia, 9–14 September 1961] 11: 202–209.
9. Krishna K (1963) The African genus
10. Krishna K (1963) A systematic catalogue of the main identified entomological collection at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Part 32, Order Lepidoptera, Family Papilionidae. Indian Forest Leaflet 121(4): 396–408.
11. Krishna K (1965) A new species of termite from the Nicobar Islands (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae). Entomologiske Meddelelser 34: 107–109.
12. Krishna K (1965) Termites (Isoptera) of Burma. American Museum Novitates 2210: 1–34.
13. Krishna K (1966) Key to eight termite genera:
14. Krishna K, Araujo RL (1968) A revision of the neotropical termite genus
15. Krishna K (1968) Phylogeny and generic reclassification of the
16. Krishna K, Weesner FM (1969) Biology of Termites [Volume I]. Academic Press, New York, NY, xiii+598 pp.
17. Krishna K (1969) Introduction. In: Krishna K, Weesner FM (Eds) Biology of Termites [Volume I]. Academic Press, New York, NY, 1–17 [total pages xiii+598 pp.].
18. Krishna K, Weesner FM (1970) Biology of Termites [Volume II]. Academic Press, New York, NY, xiv+[i]+643 pp.
19. Krishna K (1970) Taxonomy, phylogeny, and distribution of termites. In: Krishna K, Weesner FM (Eds) Biology of Termites [Volume II]. Academic Press, New York, NY, 127–152 [total pages xiv+[i]+643 pp.].
20. Krishna K (1972) A revision of the Indomalayan termite genus
21. Krishna K (1974) Isoptera. In: Preece WE (Ed) Encyclopaedia Britannica [15th Edition, Volume 9]. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., London, UK, 1049–1054.
22. Emerson AE, Krishna K (1975) The termite family Serritermitidae (Isoptera). American Museum Novitates 2570: 1–31.
23. Krishna K, Adams C (1982) The Oriental termite genus
24. Krishna K, Emerson AE (1983) A new fossil species of termite from Mexican amber,
25. Krishna K, Bacchus S (1987) A new fossil species of termite from Dominican amber,
26. Krishna K (1989) Order Isóptera: Termites. In: Borror DJ, Triplehorn CA, Johnson NF (Eds) An Introduction to the Study of Insects [6th Edition]. Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, PA, 234–241 [xiv+875 pp.].
27. Krishna K (1990) Isoptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 195: 76–81. [Grimaldi DA (Ed) Insects from the Santana Formation, Lower Cretaceous, of Brazil. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 195: 1–191].
28. Krishna K, Grimaldi D (1991) A new fossil species from Dominican amber of the living Australian termite genus
29. Krishna K (1992) Isoptera. In: McHenry R (Ed) The New Encyclopaedia Britannica [15th Edition, Volume 21, Macropaedia]. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, IL, 675–679 [total volume pages [iii]+1016 pp.].
30. Krishna K (1996) New fossil species of termites of the subfamily Nasutitermitinae from Dominican and Mexican amber (Isoptera, Termitidae). American Museum Novitates 3176: 1–13.
31. Thorne BL, Grimaldi DA, Krishna K (2000) Early fossil history of the termites. In: Abe T, Bignell DE, Higashi M (Eds) Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 77–93 [total volume pages xxii+466 pp.].
32. Krishna K, Grimaldi D (2000) A new subfamily, genus, and species of termite (Isoptera) from New Jersey Cretaceous amber. In: Grimaldi D (Ed) Studies on Fossils in Amber, with Particular Reference to the Cretaceous of New Jersey. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands, 133–140 [total volume pages viii+498 pp.].
33. Engel MS, Krishna K (2001)
34. Engel MS, Krishna K (2001) Macrotermitinae Kemner, 1934 (Insecta, Isoptera): Proposed precedence over Acanthotermitinae Sjöstedt, 1926. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 58(3): 206–209.
35. Krishna K (2001) Southeast Asian species of the genus
36. Engel MS, Krishna K (2002)
37. Krishna K, Grimaldi DA (2003) The first Cretaceous Rhinotermitidae (Isoptera): A new species, genus, and subfamily in Burmese amber. American Museum Novitates 3390: 1–10.
38. Krishna K (2003) A new species,
39. Engel MS, Krishna K, Boyko C (2003) Termopsidae Holmgren, 1911,
40. Engel MS, Krishna K (2004) Family-group names for termites (Isoptera). American Museum Novitates 3432: 1–9.
41. Engel MS, Krishna K (2004) Comment on the proposed conservation of prevailing usage of Termopsidae Holmgren, 1911,
42. Engel MS, Krishna K (2004) An overlooked family-group name for termites (Isoptera). Entomological News 115(3): 168.
43. Engel MS, Krishna K (2005)
44. Engel MS, Krishna K (2005) Comment on the proposed suppression of
45. Krishna K (2005) Order Isoptera: Termites. In: Triplehorn CA, Johnson NF (Ed) Borror and DeLong’s Introduction to the Study of Insects [7th Edition]. Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA, 252–259 [total volume pages x+864 pp.].
46. Engel MS, Krishna K (2007) Two overlooked family-group names for fossil termites (Isoptera: Mastotermitidae). Entomological News 118(1): 105–106.
47. Lo N, Engel MS, Cameron S, Nalepa CA, Tokuda G, Grimaldi D, Kitade O, Krishna K, Klass K-D, Maekawa K, Miura T, Thompson GJ (2007) Spare Isoptera: A comment on Inward et al. Biology Letters 3(5): 562–563.
48. Engel MS, Krishna K (2007) New
49. Engel MS, Krishna K (2007) Drywood termites in Dominican amber (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae). Beiträge zur Entomologie 57(2): 263–275.
50. Engel MS, Krishna K (2007)
51. Engel MS, Grimaldi DA, Krishna K (2007) Primitive termites from the Early Cretaceous of Asia (Isoptera). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B, Geologie und Paläontologie 371: 1–32.
52. Engel MS, Grimaldi DA, Krishna K (2007) A synopsis of Baltic amber termites (Isoptera). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B, Geologie und Paläontologie 372: 1–20.
53. Grimaldi DA, Engel MS, Krishna K (2008) The species of Isoptera (Insecta) from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation: A revision. American Museum Novitates 3626: 1–30.
54. Krishna K, Grimaldi DA (2009) Diverse Rhinotermitidae and Termitidae (Isoptera) in Dominican amber. American Museum Novitates 3640: 1–48.
55. Engel MS, Grimaldi DA, Krishna K (2009) Termites (Isoptera): Their phylogeny, classification, and rise to ecological dominance. American Museum Novitates 3650: 1–27.
56. Krishna K, Engel MS (2011)
57. Krishna K, Engel MS, Grimaldi DA, Krishna V (2012) Treatise on the Isoptera of the world. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. In press.
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