Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst

Johann Ludwig Christian Carl Gravenhorst (November 14, 1777 – January 14, 1857), sometimes Jean Louis Charles or Carl, was a German entomologist, herpetologist, and zoologist.

Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst.

Life

Gravenhorst was born in Braunschweig. His early interest in insects was encouraged by two of his professors, both amateur entomologists. He entered the University of Helmstedt to study law in 1797. However, the death of his father two years later left him a great fortune; so he was able to change his direction. He enrolled at the University of Göttingen where he followed the courses of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. He returned to present his thesis to Helmstädt on a subject of entomology. He went to Paris in 1802 and there met Georges Cuvier, Pierre André Latreille, and Alexandre Brongniart. Parallel to his studies, he assembled, thanks to his financial means, a very important natural history collection. In 1805, he obtained a professorial chair in Göttingen and published the following year Monographie Coleopterorum.

Among his work, Gravenhorst's studies of the parasitic wasps is especially important, but he also worked in herpetology. He settled in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1810, teaching natural history at the university of the city. The following year, the university was transferred to Breslau. There he became director of the Breslau Natural History Museum and installed his own collections there. He started to suffer from mental disorders after 1825, stopping all scientific work in the year 1840, and withdrawing completely into himself in 1856. He died in Breslau.

Achievements

Gravenhorst was a specialist in Staphylinidae and Ichneumonidae describing many new species. He was also one of the first frog specialists.

Two species of lizards are named in his honor: Liolaemus gravenhorstii and Trachylepis gravenhorstii.[1]

Species described by Gravenhorst

Works
  • Monographia Coleopterorum Micropterorum. Göttingen: Henricus Dieterich, xvi+248 pp, tabula. (1802)

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  • Coleoptera Microptera Brunsvicensia nec non exoticorum quotquot exstant in collectionibus entomologorum Brunsvicensium in genera familias et species distribuit. Braunschweig: Carolus Reichard, lxvi+207 pp. Gravenhorst, J.L.C (1806)

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  • Ichneumologia Europaea. Vratislaviae, sumtibus auctoris. 3 volumes (including supplement). pp. xxxi, 827, (4); 989; 1097, with 2 engraved plates and 2 folded tables.(1829) – Contents I: Generalia, Ichneumones, Supplementa, Indices – II: Tryphones, Trogos, Alomyas, Cryptos – III: Pimplas, Metopios, Bassos, Banchos, Ophiones, Hellwigias, Acaenitas, Xoridas, Supplementa. BHL digitised text of all 3 volumes.
Ophion ventricosus an ichneumon described by Gravenhorst.

Collections
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References
  1. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Gravenhorst", p. 106).

Translated from French Wikipedia

  • Townes, H. K. 1965. Labeling in the Gravenhorst collection of Ichneumonidae (Hymen.) Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne 35: 403–407.

Source Kraig Adler (1989). Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

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