Johan Christian Fabricius
Johann Christian Fabricius (7 Januari 1745 – 3 Maret 1808) adalah entomolog Denmark, yang juga menulis beberapa esei di bidang ekonomi. Ia adalah murid dari Carolus Linnaeus, dan dianggap sebagai entomolog terpenting dari abad ke-18, dan hasil klasifikasinya sampai sekarang menjadi dasar bagi klasifikasi serangga modern.
Riwayat hidup
Johann Christian Fabricius lahir pada tanggal 7 Januari 1745 di Tønder, dulu menjadi bagian dari Keadipatian Schleswig dari ayah seorang dokter[1][2]. He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762.[3] Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga to Uppsala, where he studied under Carl Linnaeus for two years.[3] On his return, he started work on his Systema entomologiæ, which was finally published in 1775.[3] Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, who worked as a consultant at Frederiks Hospital.[3]
Fabricius was appointed a professor in Copenhagen in 1770, and in 1775 or 1776, the University of Kiel appointed Fabricius Professor of Natural History and Economics, promising that they would build a natural history museum and a botanical garden.[2] Although he tried to resign three times, on one occasion only being prevented by an appeal from his students to the Danish King and Duke of Schleswig, Christian VII,[2] Fabricius held the position at Kiel for the rest of his life.[1]
During his time in Kiel, Fabricius repeatedly travelled to London in the summer to study the collections of British collectors, such as Joseph Banks and Dru Drury.[4] Towards the end of his career, Fabricius spent much of his time living in Paris, where he frequently met with naturalists such as Georges Cuvier and Pierre André Latreille,[2] but on hearing of the British attack on Copenhagen in 1807, Fabricius returned to Denmark, damaging his already fragile health. He died on the 3rd of March 1808, at the age of 63.[2] His daughter died in an accident in Paris, but he was survived by two sons, who both studied medicine.[1]
Works
Fabricius is considered one of the greatest entomologists of the 18th century.[2] He was a greater observer of insects than his more botanically-minded mentor, Carl Linnaeus. Fabricius named 9,776 species of insects, compared to Linnaeus' tally of around 3,000.[5]
In contrast to Linnaeus' classification of the insects, which was based primarily on the number of wings, and their form, Fabricius used the form of the mouthparts to discriminate the orders (which he termed "classes").[5] He stated "those whose nourishment and biology are the same, must then belong to the same genus".[6] Fabricius' system remains the basis of insect classification today, although the names he proposed are not. For instance, his name for the class containing the beetles was "Eleutherata", rather than the modern "Coleoptera", and he used "Piezata" for Hymenoptera; his term Glossata is still in use, but for a slightly smaller group almong the Lepidoptera, rather than the whole order. Fabricius also foresaw that the male genitalia would provide useful characters for systematics, but could not apply that insight himself.[6]
Fabricius was the first to divide the Staphylinidae (rove beetles), which Linnaeus had considered a single genus he called "Staphylinus," establishing in 1775 the genus Paederus. He also described 77 species of Staphylinidae.[7]
His major works on systematic entomology were:[5]
- Systema entomologiæ (1775)
- Genera insectorum (1776)
- Species insectorum (1781)
- Mantissa insectorum (1787)
- Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta (1792–1799)
- Systema eleuthatorum (1801)
- Systema rhyngotorum (1803)
- Systema piezatorum (1804)
- Systema antliatorum (1805)
- Systema glossatorum (1807)
Fabricius' collections are shared between the Natural History Museum, London, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford, the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, the Zoological Museum in Kiel, Kiel, and the Statens Naturhistoriske Museum, Copenhagen.[2]
Fabricius also wrote a few works on economics, although these are much less important than his zoological works. They include Begyndelsesgrundene i de økonomiske Videnskaber (1773), Polizeischriften (1786–1790) and Von der Volksvermehrung, insonderheit in Dänemark (1781).[3]
References
- ^ a b c David M. Damkaer (2002). "Johan Christian Fabricius". The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History. Volume 240 of Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. hlm. 67–71. ISBN 9780871692405.
- ^ a b c d e f g Jon-Arne Sneli, Jørgen Knudsen & Antonia Vedelsby (2009). "Johan Christian Fabricius and his molluscan species, Acesta excavata (J. C. Fabricius, 1779)" (PDF). Steenstrupia. 30 (2): 153–162.
- ^ a b c d e "Johan Christian Fabricius". [[Dansk biografisk leksikon]] (dalam bahasa Danish). 5 (edisi ke-1st). Projekt Runeberg. 1891. hlm. 24–30. Konflik URL–wikilink (bantuan)
- ^ Hans G. Hansson. "Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names". Göteborgs Universitet. Diakses tanggal September 14, 2010. Parameter
|chapter=
akan diabaikan (bantuan) - ^ a b c S. L. Tuxen (1967). "The entomologist J. C. Fabricius". Annual Review of Entomology. 12: 1–15. doi:10.1146/annurev.en.12.010167.000245.
- ^ a b David A. Grimaldi & Michael S. Engel (2005). "Diversity and Evolution". Evolution of the insects. Volume 1 of Cambridge Evolution Series. Cambridge University Press. hlm. 1–41. ISBN 9780521821490.
- ^ "Biographical sketches: Fabricius, Johann Christian" (PDF). Bulletin AMNH: 61–62. 1901. Diakses tanggal 28 July 2011.
Further reading
- Henning Ratjen (1877), "Fabricius, Johann Christian", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (dalam bahasa Jerman), 6, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, hlm. 521–522
- Friedrich Hoffmann (1959) (bahasa Jerman). "Fabricius, Johann Christian ". Di Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). 4. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 736 et seq..
- ZMCU Collection contents online
- Digital version of Entomologia systematica, emendata et aucta
- Henriksen, Kai L. (1932) Johann Christian Fabricius, pp. 76–80 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.
External links
- An accentuated list of the British Lepidoptera London 1858 Biography on page XVI givesFabricius own account of his travels