Caspar (or Kaspar) Erasmus Duftschmid was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n naturalist and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who made significant contributions to

entomology Entomology () is the science, 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 ...

, especially

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

. He was born in

Gmunden Gmunden () is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden (district), Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 ). It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-c ...

on 19 November 1767 and died in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

on 17 December 1821. His best-known work, introducing many new

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

is ''Fauna Austriaca. Oder Beschreibung der österreischischen Insekten für angehande Freunde der Entomologie'', which was published in three volumes (in 1805, 1812, and 1825) at Linz and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. His collection of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera from Upper Austria is i
Oberösterreiches Landesmuseum - Biologiezentrum
The natural history museum of Upper Austria (in German), Linz. The labels are lost and the insects incorporated into the general collection.

References

*Duméril, C. A. M. C. 1823 iographienParis; Strasbourg, F. G. Levrault. *Kusdas, K. & Reichl, E. R. rsg.1973: Allgemeines. In Kusdas, R. & Reichl, E. R. rsg.1973: ''Die Schmetterlinge Oberösterreichs''. Teil 1: Allgemeines, Tagfalter. Linz : 1-266 : 1-37. *Mitter, H. 2003: Zur Geschichte der *Käferkunde in Oberösterreich. Denisia 8 131-137, 7 Abb. 1767 births 1821 deaths Austrian entomologists Coleopterists Austrian naturalists People from Gmunden 18th-century Austrian physicians 19th-century Austrian physicians {{entomologist-stub