Robert Frederick Inger (September 10, 1920 – April 12, 2019) was an American herpetologist. During his lifetime, he wrote numerous books and publications about herpetology. He was also the curator for amphibians and reptiles at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

Family

Robert Inger was the son of Jacob Inger and Anna Bourd. In 1946 he married Mary Lee Ballew (b. 1918) who died of cancer in 1985. In 1991 he married Tan Fui Lian (b. 1951).

Education

Inger's high school biology teacher was Julian Steyermark, who became curator of botany at the Field Museum. Steyermark was the role model that led Inger to the Field Museum to volunteer, where he was interviewed by Karl P. Schmidt, Dwight Davis, and Clifford H. Pope. As a result of this volunteer work, Inger had authored or coauthored five publications before graduating from high school. In 1942, Inger received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Chicago. After first being turned down due to poor eyesight, he was drafted into the Army Corps of Engineers and placed in a unit of General Patton's Army in France and Germany making maps from the ground. He was discharged in 1945 near St. Louis. Inger returned to the University of Chicago for graduate work, with his principal mentor being Karl P. Schmidt, who suggested that he do his dissertation on the systematics and zoogeography of the Philippine Amphibia (Inger, 1954), using the extensive collection at the Field Museum.

Career

Inger's herpetology career began with volunteer work at the Field Museum, where he was eventually hired as assistant curator of fishes in 1949. He then succeeded Clifford Pope as curator of amphibians and reptiles in 1954. He retired from this position in September 1994; however, he continued lab and field work in the museum as curator emeritus.

Inger served as president of the Society of Systematic Zoology in 1971, president of American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology in 1974, and president of the Herpetologists' League in 1982–1983. He was an editor for Evolution and the American Midland Naturalist and a sectional editor (herpetology) for Copeia. He also served on the board of the Illinois Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. In January 2007 Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng conferred on Inger the honorary Panglima Setia Bintang Sarawak (PSBS), which carries the title Datuk. This honor was conferred in recognition of Inger's 50 years of field work in Borneo describing, cataloguing and publishing on the taxonomy and ecology of herpetofauna in Sarawak.

On April 12, 2019, Inger died at the age of 98.

Taxa

Taxa named for Robert F. Inger Over 40 species are named in his honor:

Reptiles Calamaria ingeri Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Inger, p. 129). Cyrtodactylus ingeri Dibamus ingeri Erythrolamprus ingeri Phyllodactylus tuberculosus ingeri

Amphibians Ameerega ingeri Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter, England: Pelagic Publishing. xiii + 244 pp. (Hbk). (Inger, pp. 101–102). Ingerana Ingerophrynus Limnonectes ingeri Pelophryne ingeri Philautus ingeri Ptychadena ingeri Raorchestes bobingeri Strabomantis ingeri

Fishes Gastromyzon ingeri Halieutopsis ingerorum Osteochilus ingeri Stenogobius ingeri

Species described by Robert F. Inger

Over 75 species have been described by him.

Species Authority Reference Leptopelis oryi Inger, 1968 Leptopelis parvus Schmidt & Inger, 1959 Ansonia albomaculata Inger, 1960 Amietophrynus cristiglans Inger & Menzies, 1961 PDF fulltext Tetraodon kretamensis Inger, 1953 fulltext Sphenomorphus sabanus Inger, 1958 fulltext

Publications He has written 8 books and more than 130 peer-reviewed articles.

Books

1957 Living Reptiles of the World with Karl Patterson Schmidt 1966 The Reptiles 1989 The Frogs of Sabah with R. B. Stuebing 1996 The Natural History of Amphibians and Reptiles in Sabah with Tan Fui Lian 1997 A Field Guide to the Frogs of Borneo with R. B. Stuebing 1999 A Field Guide to the Snakes of Borneo with R. B. Stuebing 2005 A Field Guide to the Frogs of Borneo 2nd Edition with R. B. Stuebing 2010 Natural History Of Amphibians And Reptiles In Sabah 2nd Edition with Tan Fui Lian

Other publications Source: 1942. Scale reduction in snakes. Copeia 1942:163–170 with P. J. Clark 1942. Scale reduction in certain non-colubrid snakes. Copeia 1942:230–232 with P. J. Clark 1942. Differential selection of variant juvenile snakes. Amer. Nat. 76:527–528. 1943. Partition of the genus Coluber. Copeia 1943:141–145. with P. J. Clark 1943. Further notes on differential selection of variant juvenile snakes. Amer. Nat. 77:87–90. 1946. Restriction of the type locality of Thamnophis sirtalis. Copeia 1946:254. 1947. Preliminary survey of the amphibians of the Riu Kiu Islands. Fieldiana:Zool. 32:297–352. Biodiversity Heritage Library fulltext 1948. The systematic status of the crocodile Osteoblepharon osborni. Copeia 1948:15–19. 1949. Notes on a collection of fresh-water fishes from Trinidad. Copeia 1949: 300. 1950. Distribution and speciation of amphibians of the Riu Kiu Islands. Amer. Nat. 84:95–115. 1951. Amphibians and reptiles of the Hopkins-Branner expedition to Brazil. Fieldiana:Zool. 31:439–465. Biodiversity Heritage Library fulltext 1953. A new fish from North Borneo: genus Tetraodon. Fieldiana:Zool. 34:149–152. Biodiversity Heritage Library fulltext 1954. Systematics and zoogeographyof Philippine Amphibia. Fieldiana:Zool.33:183–531 1954. On a collection of amphibians from Mount Kinabalu, North Borneo. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 44:250–251. 1955. Ecological notes on the fis fauna of a coastal drainage of North Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 32:47–90. 1955. Notes on snakes of the genus Calamaria. Fieldiana:Zool. 37:167–209. with Hymen Marx 1955. a revision of the fishes of the genus Plesiops Cuvier. Pacific Sci. 9:259–276. 1956. Some amphibians from the lowlands of North Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 34:389–424. 1956. Notes on a collection of fishes from southeastern Venezuela. Fieldiana:Zool. 34:425–440. 1956. Morphology and development of the vocal sac apparatus in the African frog Rana (Ptychadena) porossima Steindachner. J. Morph. 99:57–72. 1956. Morphology and seasonal development of sex characters in two sympatric African toads. J. Morph. 99:549–574 with B. Greenberg 1957. Report on a collection of marine fishes from North Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 36:341–405. 1957. Ecological aspects of the origins of the tetrapods. Evol. 11:373–376. 1957. The cave, spring, and swamp fishes of the family Amblyopsidae of central and eastern United States. Amer. Midl. Nat. 58:232–256 with L. P. Woods 1958. A note on the Philippine frogs related to Rana macrodon. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:253–255. 1958. Three new skinks related to Sphenomorphus variegates (Peters). Fieldiana:Zool. 39:257–268. Biodiversity Heritage Library fulltext 1958. The vocal sac of the Colorado River toad Bufo alvarius (Girard). Texas J. Sci. 10:319–324. 1958. Comments on the definition of genera. Evol 12:370–384. 1958. A new gecko of the genus Cyrtodactylus, with a key to the species from Borneo and the Philippine Islands. Sarawak Mus. J. 8:261–264. 1958. Notes on fishes of the genus Brachygobius. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:107–117. 1958. Notes on the Bornean glass snake. Sarawak Mus. J. 8:479–481. 1958. A new toad from Sarawak. Sarawak Mus. J. 8:476–478. 1959. Temperature responses and ecological relations of two Bornean lizards. Ecol. 40:127–136. 1959. Amphibians exclusive of the genera Afrixalus and Hyperolius. Exploration du Parc national de l'Upemba, Inst. Parc Nat. Congo Belge, Fasc. 56, 264 pp. with K. P. Schmidt 1959. Amphibia. South African Animal Life 6:510–553. 1959. New species of fresh-water catfishes from North Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:279–296. 1960. Notes on toads of the genus Pelophryne. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:415–418. 1960. A review of the agamid lizards of the genus Phoxophrys Hubrecht. Copeia 1960:221–225. 1960. A review of the Oriental toads of the genus Ansonia. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:473–503. 1961. A new pelobatid frog of the genus Megophrys from Hong Kong. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:533–538. with J. D. Romer 1961. Notes on two New Guinean lizards of the genus Sphenomorphus. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:539–542. 1961. The food of amphibians. Exploration du Parc national de l'Upemba, Inst. Parc Nat. du Congo et Ruanda-Urundi, Fasc. 64, 86 pp. with H. Marx 1961. The Bornean cyprinid fishes of the genus Gastromyzon Günther. Copeia 1961:166–176. 1961. A new species of toad (Bufo) from Sierra Leone. Fieldiana:Zool. 39:589–594.PDF fulltext 1961. Problems in the application of the subspecies concept in vertebrate taxonomy. Univ. Texas Symposium on Vertebrate Taxonomy, pp. 262–285. 1961. A new colubrid snake of the genus Pseudorabdion from Sumatra. Fieldiana:Zool. 44:45–47. with A. E. Leviton 1961. A new cave dwelling lizard of the genus Cyrtodactylus. Sarawak Mus. J. 10:274–276. with F. W. King 1962. The fresh-water fishes of North Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 45:1–268. with Chin P.-K. 1962. Variation of hemipenis and cloaca in the colubrid snake, Calamaria lumbricoidea. Syst. Zool. 11:32–38. with H. Marx 1962. On the terrestrial origin of frogs. Copeia 1962:835–836. 1963. The annual reproductive pattern of the frog Rana erythraea in Sarawak. Phys. Zool. 36:21–33. with B. Greenberg 1964. The taxonomic status of the frog Cornufer dorsalis A Duméril. Copeia 1964:450–451. with W. C. Brown 1964. Two new species of frogs from Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 44:151–159. 1965. The systematics and evolution of the Oriental colubrid snakes of the Genus Calamaria. Fieldiana:Zool. 49:1–304. with H. Marx 1965. New species of scincid lizards of the genus Sphenomorphus from Sarawak. Israel J. Zool. 14:134–140. with W. Hosmer 1966. The taxonomic status of Bornean snakes of the genus Pseudorabdion Jan and of the nominal genus Idiopholis Mocquard. Proc. California Acad. Sci. 34:307–314. with A. E. Leviton 1966. The systematics and zoogeography of the Amphibia of Borneo. Fieldiana:Zoology 33:183–531. 1966. Ecological and competitive relations among three species of frogs (genus Rana). Ecol. 47:746–759. with B. Greenberg 1966. Annual reproductive patterns of lizards from a Bornean rain forest. Ecol. 47:1007–1021. with B. Greenberg 1967. The development of a phylogeny of frogs. Evol. 21:369–384. 1967. A new colubrid snake of the genus Stegonotus from Borneo. Fieldiana:Zool. 51:77–83. 1968. Annual reproduction and clutch size in rain forest frogs from Sarawak. Copeia 1968:602–606. with J. P. Bacon 1968. On the diversity of reptile and amphibian species in a Bornean rain forest. Amer. Nat. 102:497–515. with M. Lloyd & F. W. King 1968. Amphibia. Exploration du Parc Nat. de la Garamba, Fasc. 52, 190 pp. 1969. Organization of communities of frogs along small rain forest streams in Sarawak. J. Animal Ecol. 38:123–148. 1970. A new species of frog of the genus Rana from Thailand. Fieldiana:Zool. 51:169–174. 1972. Bufo from Eurasia. In Evolution in the genus Bufo. Ed. W. F. Blair, Univ. Texas Press, pp. 102–118, 357-360. 1973. Numerical taxonomy. Caldasia 11:72–88. 1974. Genetic variation and population ecology of some Southeast Asian frogs of the genera Bufo and Rana. Genetics 12:121–145. with H. K. and H. H. Voris 1977. Organization of contiguous communities of amphibians and reptiles in Thailand. Ecol. Monogr. 47:229–253. with R. K. Colwell 1979. Abundances of amphibians and reptiles in tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Trans 6th Aberdeen-Hull Symposium on Malesian Ecology. Ed. A. G. Marshall. Univ. Hull Dept. Geography, Misc. Ser., No. 22, pp. 92–110. 1980. Species of the scincid genus Dasia Gray. Fieldiana:Zool. (n.s.), no. 3, 11 pp. with W. C. Brown