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Pieter Bleeker | |
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Born | Zaandam, the Netherlands | 10 July 1819
Died | 24 January 1878 58) The Hague, the Netherlands | (aged
Known for | Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises |
Awards | Doctorates honoris causa at Leyden University and Utrecht University, Légion d'honneur |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences National Museum of Natural History (France) Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies |
Author abbrev. (zoology) | Bleeker |
Pieter Bleeker (10 July 1819 – 24 January 1878) was a Dutch medical doctor, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He was famous for the Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises, his monumental work on the fishes of East Asia published between 1862 and 1877.
Bleeker was born on 10 July 1819 in Zaandam. [1] He was employed as a medical officer in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army from 1842 to 1860, [2] stationed in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). During that time, he did most of his ichthyology work, besides his duties in the army. He acquired many of his specimens from local fishermen, but he also built up an extended network of contacts who would send him specimens from various government outposts throughout the islands. During his time in Indonesia, he collected well over 12,000 specimens, many of which currently reside at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. [3] Bleeker corresponded with Auguste Duméril of Paris. His work in ichthyology and tropical medicine was recognised by two doctorates honoris causa (Leyden University, 1846; Utrecht University, 1849). [2]
After his return to the Netherlands in 1860, he started publishing the Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises, a comprehensive account of his studies done in Indonesia, featuring over 1,500 illustrations. It was published in 36 volumes between 1862 and his death in 1878. [2] Between 1977 and 1983, the Smithsonian republished the work in 10 volumes.
Bleeker published more than 500 papers on ichthyology, describing 511 new genera and 1,925 new species.
He also worked in herpetology, describing at least 14 species of reptiles, [4] [5] most of them described in Reptilien van Agam. [6]
In 1855, he became correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, department Natuurkunde (then Natural Sciences), and in 1862 a member. [1] In 1856, he was elected correspondent for the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. In January 1864 he received a French knighthood of the Légion d'honneur. [2] He was president of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies. [1]
Bleeker died on 24 January 1878 in The Hague. [1]
Fish named after him include:
Lophocalotes ludekingi, called commonly the crested lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Agamidae. The species is endemic to Sumatra, Indonesia.
Auguste Henri André Duméril was a French zoologist. His father, André Marie Constant Duméril (1774–1860), was also a zoologist. In 1869 he was elected as a member of the Académie des sciences.
The pearl gourami is a species of gourami native to Southeast Asia.
The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initiative of Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who saw the museum primarily as a research institute for the University of Leiden. The total collection was already quite large at the time, and continued to grow from foreign expeditions and by obtaining private collections from inheritances. The location is currently used by the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
Jansen's wrasse is a species of ray-finned fish, a wrasse from the family Labridae which is native to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. In the south-western Pacific Ocean it is replaced by sibling species black-barred wrasse. It can be found in the aquarium trade.
Triplophysa bleekeri is a species of stone loach in the genus Triplophysa. It is endemic to China. It grows to 8.2 cm (3.2 in) TL. Having a wide distribution across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it lives in fast-flowing rivers from 200 to 3,000m in altitude. Being an unusual species inhabiting high-altitude regions, it is an excellent model to investigate the genetic mechanisms of adaptation to the local environment. With this in mind a chromosomal-scale genome assembly was sequenced and assembled with a genome size of ~628 Mb. This data finding that the Triplophysa genus likely diverged when the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau elevated by >4,000 m roughly 40 million years ago.
Paraplesiops bleekeri, commonly known as the eastern blue devil, blue-tipped long-fin or Bleeker's blue devil fish, is a species of fish in the family Plesiopidae. This colourful, secretive fish is endemic to Australia, where it is a protected species.
Pomacanthus xanthometopon is a marine ray-finned fish, a marine angelfish belonging to the family Pomacanthidae found in shallow parts of the Indo-Pacific. It is commonly known as the blueface angelfish or the yellowface angelfish because of its striking facial colouration.
François Paul Louis Pollen (1842–1886) was a Dutch naturalist and merchant. He made major contributions to the study of the Malagasy fauna.
Chlorurus bleekeri, known commonly as Bleeker's parrotfish, is a species of marine fish in the family Scaridae.
Eubleekeria is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes, ponyfishes from the family Leiognathidae which are native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.
Lepidocephalichthys hasselti is a species of cobitid loach native to southeastern Asia and western Indonesia. This species reaches a length of 45 millimetres (1.8 in) TL.
Dotsugobius bleekeri, also known as the dark mangrovegoby, is a species of fish in the family Gobiidae known from brackish estuarine and the adjacent freshwater areas of the eastern Indian Ocean, Andaman Sea and Western Pacific. The generic name honours the Japanese ichthyologist Yoshie Dotsu, whose surname was spelled “Dôtu” in his earlier publications, of Nagasaki University while the specific name honours the Dutch ichthyologist, herpetologist and physician Pieter Bleeker (1819-1878) who was a significant worker on the fish fauna of the Dutch East Indies. This species is placed in the genus Lophogobius by some authorities.
Canna Maria Louise Popta was a Dutch biologist.
Osteochilus bleekeri is a species of cyprinid fish endemic to Borneo and Sumatra.
Osteochilus kappenii is a species of cyprinid fish endemic to the Kapuas, western Borneo.
Hendrik Severinus Pel was a Dutch zoologist and colonial administrator on the Dutch Gold Coast.
The licorice gourami is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish from the subfamily Macropodusinae, part of the family Osphronemidae, the gouramis. It is endemic to Bangka in Indonesia where it is found in the slow, flowing streams with black waters associated with peat swamp forests. This species was formally described by the Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker as Osphromenus deissneri in 1859 with the type locality given as Sungai Baturussa basin at 8 kilometres from Pudingbesar on the road to Kampong Simpan, Bangka. It is the type species of the genus Parosphromenus. The specific name honours F. H. Deissner, a military health officer, who sent a collection of specimens of fishes from Bangka to Bleeker which included the type of this species.
Siganus labyrinthodes, the labyrinth spinefoot, is a little known species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the family Siganidae. It is found in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean.
Argyrops bleekeri is also known as Taiwan tai. It is a species of fish in the family Sparidae. It is found from Japan to Australia in the Western Pacific. This species reaches a length of 50.0 cm (19.7 in).