Carl Ludwig Koch (21 September 1778 – 23 August 1857) was a German

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of sp ...

. He was responsible for classifying a great number of

spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

, including the Brazilian whiteknee tarantula and

common house spider ''Parasteatoda tepidariorum'', the common house spider or American house spider, is a spider species of the genus '' Parasteatoda'' with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common house spiders are synanthropic and live in and near human dwellings. Thei ...

. He was born in

Kusel Kusel (; written ''Cusel'' until 1865) is a town in the Kusel (district), Kusel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Kusel-Altenglan ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and is also the district seat. The well-kno ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and died in

Nuremberg, Germany Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

. Carl Ludwig Koch was an inspector of water and forests. His principal work ''Die Arachniden'' (1831–1848) (16 volumes) was commenced by

Carl Wilhelm Hahn Carl Wilhelm Hahn (Lat. ''Carolus Guilielmus Hahn'', 16 December 1786 – 7 November 1835) was a German zoologist and author of the first German monograph on spiders. C. W. Hahn was an all-round natural scientist – not at all unusual for his t ...

(1786–1836). Koch was responsible for the last 12 volumes. He also finished the chapter on spiders in ''Faunae insectorum germanicae initia oder Deutschlands Insecten'' lements of the insect fauna of Germanya work by

Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer (31 May 1755 – 28 June 1829) was a German botanist and entomologist. He was born at Etzelwang in the Upper Palatinate and died at Hersbruck, near Nuremberg. He was the son of (the elder, 1729-1805), one of the mo ...

(1755–1829). He also co-authored, with

Georg Karl Berendt Georg Karl (or Carl) Berendt (13 July 1790 – 4 January 1850) was a German physician and paleontologist who was a native of Danzig. He studied medicine and botany at the University of Königsberg, and from 1814 practiced medicine in Danzig. He is ...

, an important monograph ''Die im Bernstein befindlichen Myriapoden, Arachniden und Apteren der Vorwelt'' (1854) on arachnids, myriapods, and wingless insects in

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...

based on material in Berendt's collection, now held in the

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...

, Berlin. He is not to be confused with his son,

Ludwig Carl Christian Koch Ludwig Carl Christian Koch (8 November 1825 – 1 November 1908) was a German entomologist and arachnologist. He was born in Regensburg, Germany, and died in Nuremberg, Germany. He studied in Nuremberg, initially law, but then turned to medic ...

(1825–1908), who also became a well-known entomologist.

Works

''Die Pflanzenlause Aphiden : getreu nach dem Leben abgebildet und beschrieben'', Nürnberg 1854
* ''Die Pflanzenlause Aphiden.'' Lotzbeck, Nürnberg 1857. * ''Übersicht des Arachnidensystems.'' Zeh, Nürnberg 1837–50. * ''Deutschlands Crustaceen, Myriapoden und Arachniden.'' Pustet, Regensburg 1835–44. * ''Die Arachniden.'' Zeh, Nürnber
1831–48.
* ''System der baierischen Zoologie.'' Nürnberg, München 1816.(A general work on the zoology of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

of some importance in

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

taxonomy.
''System der Myriapoden, mit den Verzeichnissen und Berichtigungen zu Deutschlands Crustaceen, Myriapoden, und Arachniden'', Regensburg, Pustet,1847.

Literature

* Roesler, Rudolf: ''Karl Ludwig Koch (1778-1857).'' in ''Oberpfälzer Heimat.'' Auflage 42, Weiden 1997/98.

External links

*
www.de.wikisource/Carl_Ludwig_Koch
German entomologists German taxonomists 1778 births 1857 deaths German arachnologists Myriapodologists 19th-century German zoologists People from Kusel (district) {{entomologist-stub