
Embrik Strand (2 June 1876 – 3 November 1947) was an
entomologist and
arachnologist who classified many insect and spider species including the
greenbottle blue tarantula.
Life and career
Strand was born in
Ã…l, Norway. He studied at the University of Kristiania (now
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top univers ...
). Around 1900 he focused on collecting insect specimens from Norway. These are now deposited at the university's museum, where he worked as a curator from 1901 to 1903.
After studying at the University of Oslo Strand traveled in Norway from 1898 to 1903 collecting a great number of insects. For part of this time (1901–1903) he was a conservator in the museum of zoology of the university.
He then left for Germany where he continued his studies of zoology at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...
(1903), then he worked with
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (1905) and, later, that of
Tübingen and then with
Senckenberg Museum in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
. From 1907, he worked with
Natural History Museum, Berlin
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 mus ...
. In 1923, he accepted the post of professor of zoology at the
University of Riga and where he directed the institute of zoology and hydrobiology.
Strand was the author of many publications, mainly on insects and spiders and was the descriptor of several hundred new
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...
. From 1910 to 1929, he edited the review ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte'' and was the founder, in 1928, of ''Folia zoologica and hydrobiologica''.
Pierre Bonnet indicates, in his '' Bibliographia araneorum'' (pages 150–153), that a record number of new taxa were dedicated to Strand. Strand himself was the editor of a book in three volumes listing these, to celebrate his jubilee. There are indeed several hundreds of species which bear his name in all the possible forms: ''strandi'', ''atrandella'', ''embriki'', ''embrikiellus'', ''embrik-strandella'', etc. In the same way, Bonnet reproached Strand renaming already described species, but of which he, Strand, considered the name incorrect: Strand draws up a list of these, in 1926, where he renames nearly 1,700
taxa
In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...
of spiders.
He was a prolific author, the list of his publications which he published in 1918 (after only twenty years of activity) is 1,200 titles. Strand was a contributor to
Adalbert Seitz
Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for ed ...
's ''Macrolepidoptera of the World'' (
Bombycidae). He died in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...
, aged 71.
Strand's collection of insects and spiders from Norway is in the Zoological Museum of the University of Oslo.
"The Natural History Museums and Botanical Garden - Tøyen"
/ref> His types are in the German Entomological Institute
The Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (german: Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, SDEI or DEI) is a German entomological research institute devoted to the study of insects. Founded in 1886, the institute has an extraordin ...
and the Museum für Naturkunde.
See also
* :Taxa named by Embrik Strand
Sources
*Natvig, L. R. (1943). trand, E.''Norsk ent. Tidsskr''. 7(1/2) 58–61, Portr. + Schr.verz.
*Pfaff, G. & Wrede, O. H. (1934). trand, E.''Festschrift, 50jähriges Bestehen I.E.V.'' 11, Portrait.
*Bonnet, P. (1945). ''Bibliographia araneorum'' the brothers Doularoude (Toulouse): 62.
References
External links
University of Oslo
DEI biografi
Portrait
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strand, Embrik
1876 births
1947 deaths
Latvian biologists
20th-century Norwegian zoologists
Norwegian entomologists
Arachnologists
University of Latvia faculty
People from Ã…l