![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(April 2024) |
Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 31 December 1840 70) | (aged
Nationality | German |
Alma mater | University of Jena |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics History Natural history Entomology |
Institutions | Braunschweig University of Technology |
Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann (7 December 1770 – 31 December 1840) was a German physician, historian, naturalist and entomologist. He is best known for his studies of world Diptera, but he also studied Hymenoptera and Coleoptera, although far less expertly.
Wiedemann’s father, Conrad Eberhard Wiedemann (1722–1804) was an art dealer and his mother, Dorothea Frederike (née Raspe) (1741–1804) was the daughter of an accountant in the Royal Mining Service and also interested in the arts.
After his education in Brunswick, he matriculated in 1790 to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jena where he was a contemporary of the poet Friedrich von Hardenberg.
While attending university, Wiedemann, was one of the many pupils of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and travelled to Saxony and Bohemia. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1792 with a thesis entitled Dissertatio inauguralis sistens vitia gennus humanum debilitantia. He then went to England to increase his knowledge of mineralogy.
Appointed Professor of Anatomy at Brunswick’s Collegium Carolinum in 1794, his inaugural address was about a medical condition observed in a boy at Llandeilo, Wales. It was titled Über das fehlende Brustbein, English “On the missing breastbone”.
In 1796, he married Luise Michaelis, the daughter of Johann David Michaelis, an Orientalist. They would raise the two sons of Luise's brother, who died in a cholera epidemic. The couple had nine children of their own, two dying in infancy.
He was later appointed Lecturer in his specialist field obstetrics
In the late 17th century, there was a movement, based in Brunswick, to establish German as a scientific language. Able to read Latin, English, French and Italian, Wiedemann found remunerative work as a translator.
In 1801, he received a scholarship for study in Paris from the Duke of Brunswick. Here he studied obstetrics and natural history and met Georges Cuvier, amongst other zoologists.
In 1802, he was, in addition to his other medical appointments, made Professor of Obstetrics at the College of Anatomy and Surgery and was nominated Privy Councillor at the court of the Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg.
In 1804, he contracted syphilis which had serious effects in later years.
In 1805, he became Professor of Medicine in Kiel (then in Denmark and part of the Duchy of Holstein) with the title Counsellor of Justice and, later Counsellor of State. These were difficult years for Denmark which had sided with France in the Napoleonic Wars against England (and her allies) to preserve her maritime empire. Money was a problem and Wiedemann used his own resources to set up the midwifery clinic proposed as one of his duties as professor.
In 1811, he travelled south to Italy for his health.
From around 1814, Wiedemann devoted much of his time to taxonomic entomology and in 1815, on a visit to Bonn to stay with his daughter Emma who had married Carl Theodor Welcker later a radical embroiled in the turbulent politics of the 1840s he travelled to Stolberg to meet Johann Wilhelm Meigen a, by then, well known entomologist through his important work on Diptera. Perhaps, not able to attend properly to his medical duties through ill health- he visited the spa town of Bad Aachen in 1817. Wiedemann changed employment (to Pharmacology) and had several semi-honorary positions. With more time and sedentary, he prepared and studied insects and went on collecting trips for his health. He also gave lectures on entomology and natural history.
Wiedemann’s most productive work on insects was accomplished in the 1820s. But when he attended a scientific meeting in Hamburg in 1830 this too was drawing to a close. His eyesight was very poor and he had a succession of strokes.
Wiedemann main natural history interest remained entomology but he was also interested in mineralogy and conchology. In 1827, his collections included 5,000 minerals and over 3,500 species of Diptera.
He is known to have visited Hamburg, Copenhagen and Berlin in these years but nothing is so far known of these trips although they may well have been to further his insect studies.
Wiedemann published the first monographs on “exotic” (non-European) Diptera. He was the creator of the transitory review Archiv für Zoologie und Zootomie 1800-1806 (five volumes) 2,356 pages. Berlin and Brunswick and the Zoologisches Magazin (volumes 1-2) 1817-1823 749 pages. Kiel and Altona.
Although he worked mainly on Diptera he also published descriptions of Coleoptera and (at least one) Hymenopteran.
He was the successor to Johan Christian Fabricius as the author of descriptions of “exotic” that is non-European Diptera. Meigen worked only on the European species.
His descriptions show clear advances, both over Fabricius and many of his contemporaries. A brief Latin diagnosis, a fuller detailed description in German, the sex of the specimen, locality details, a reference to the collection in which the specimen was to be found and, sometimes, the name of the collector.
In Brunswick, then an important centre for entomology Wiedemann worked with Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig and Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger setting new standards for descriptions (uniform terminology for structures and colour) and for nomenclature, especially in regard to the avoidance of synonyms by proper research of pre-existing literature. He was critical of Fabricius in this respect, although honouring him as a great entomologist.
In Aussereuropäische Zweiflügelige Insekten he described 1000 new and redescribed 500 old (mainly Fabrician) species. This work, supplemental to Meigen followed Meigen in introducing many new genera. He could have gone further than he did with “exotic” genera. He introduced too few of these but the full extent of diversity of world Diptera was not then apparent. The work includes descriptions of Diptera collected by Ferdinand Deppe in Mexico.
Wiedemann, in his studies of the Fabrician) species was careful to consider only Fabricius specimens identified by their labels in Fabricius’ hand. This is at the core of the modern concept of type specimens.
He made his studies as comprehensive as possible, studying the collections of Wilhelm Von Winthem and Bernt Wilhelm Westermann and studied the collections in Copenhagen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Kiel, Leiden and Vienna. He also studied Thomas Say’s borrowing these from the Philadelphia museum. He was unable to study the Linnean and the Fabricius types (both in London) or visit Paris.
Wiedemann's published work on entomology was almost entirely descriptive and notable for its accuracy.
Wiedemann's collection of Diptera and Hymenoptera was taken over by Wilhelm von Winthem who presented part to the Natural History Museum, Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien) the rest to the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, The Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen (Zoologisk Museum, Københavns Universitet). [2]
The Wiedemann Range in Greenland was named after him.
Johann Wilhelm Meigen was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera.
Pierre-Justin-Marie Macquart was a French entomologist specialising in the study of Diptera. He worked on world species as well as European and described many new species.
Wilhelm von Winthem (1799–1847) was a naturalist and entomologist from Hamburg, Germany, who was chiefly interested in Diptera and Hymenoptera. Well placed in a port city, von Winthem built a world collection.
Entomology, the scientific study of insects and closely related terrestrial arthropods, has been impelled by the necessity of societies to protect themselves from insect-borne diseases, crop losses to pest insects, and insect-related discomfort, as well as by people's natural curiosity. Though many significant developments in the field happened only recently, in the 19th–20th centuries, the history of entomology stretches back to prehistory.
Microchrysa is a genus of soldierfly belonging to the family Stratiomyidae. There has been some confusion with the synonym Chrysomyia of Macquart, 1834, causing some members of the genus Chrysomya of Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 to be placed erroneously in this genus.
Metasphenisca is a genus of fruit flies in the family Tephritidae. There are at least 25 described species in the Afrotropical and Oriental Regions. Of these, 20 occur in the continental Afrotropics and two are confined to Madagascar; three species occur in the Arabian Peninsula.
Chalcosyrphus is a genus of hoverflies in the subfamily Eristalinae. Many species exhibit some degree of mimicry of various sawflies and other hymenopterans and are often brightly coloured or metallic in hue. The adults are similar in structure and behavior to the related genus Xylota but differ in larval morphology. They can be found throughout Europe, Asia, and North America and seem to prefer damper, boggy habitats. The larvae are saproxylic feeders in rotten wood in these habitats.
Empis is a genus of dance fly found in the fly family Empididae.
Milesia is a genus of very large hoverflies, which mimic social wasps. For example, the European species Milesia crabroniformis is a convincing mimic of the hornet species Vespa crabro. Milesia are predominantly Palaeotropical in distribution almost entirely Oriental.
Stratiomys is a genus of flies in the family Stratiomyidae.
Cyphomyia is a genus of flies in the subfamily Clitellariinae.
Acrocera is a genus of small-headed flies in the family Acroceridae.
Atylotus is a genus of horse flies in the family Tabanidae.
Chrysopsinae is an insect subfamily in the family Tabanidae commonly known as deer flies or sheep flies and are bloodsucking insects considered pests to humans and cattle. They are large flies with large brightly-coloured compound eyes, and large clear wings with dark bands. They are larger than the common housefly and smaller than the horse-fly.
Chiromyzinae is a subfamily of soldier flies in the family Stratiomyidae.
Ptilocera is a genus of flies in the family Stratiomyidae.
Fidena is a genus of horse-fly in the tribe Scionini.
Rhinomyzini is a tribe of horse flies in the family Tabanidae.
Rhinomyza is a genus of horse flies in the family Tabanidae.
Acanthinomyia is a genus of flies in the family Stratiomyidae.