Ernst August Girschner, usually just Ernst Girschner (29 October 1860 – 28 April 1914) 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 ...

who specialised in

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

. Girschner was born (and died) in

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

. He taught at the Gymnasium in Torgau. Girschner described many new species of Diptera but made much more important contributions notably formalising the use of

chaetotaxy Chaetotaxy is the arrangement of bristles (macrochaetae) on an arthropod or annelid, or taxonomy based on their position and size. For example, it is important in Diptera, in which group it was formalised by Ernst August Girschner. The term chaeto ...

Calyptratae Calyptratae is a subsection of Schizophora in the insect order Diptera, commonly referred to as the calyptrate muscoids (or simply calyptrates). It consists of those flies which possess a calypter that covers the halteres, among which are som ...

"it was the merit of Mr. E. Girschner to give to Chaetotaxy a much greater development and application than it had had before, and to treat it as a sine qua non of descriptive dipterology. His enviable talent for drawing enabled him to illustrate his papers by diagrams more eloquent than any descriptions'' Osten-Sacken, C. R. 1903 Record of my life and work in entomology. Cambridge (Mass.) :156 He was a friend of entomologist

Josef Mik Josef Mik, also Joseph Mik (23 March 1839 in Zábřeh – 13 October 1900 in Vienna) was a Bohemian entomologist mainly interested in Diptera. He described many new species and made contributions to knowledge of the Diptera of Central Europe. Mik ...

Works

Partial list * Beitrag zur Systematik der Musciden. ''Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift'' 38: 297–312. in which he introduced the taxon Muscidae acalyptratae (1893.). * Einiges über die Färbung der Dipterenaugen. ''Berlin. Ent. Zeitschr''.31, 155—162, I plate (1887) * Ueber einige Musciden Wiener ''Entomologische Zeitung'' 17 :151-153 Part of his collection was purchased by Colbran J. Wainwright in 1909 (now in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

London).

References

External links

Alfred Hetschko Alfred Paul Hetschko (24 August 1898 – 18 April 1967) was an Austro-German music educator, ''Kapellmeister'' and composer, who rendered outstanding services to men's choir. From 1952 to 1955, he was director of the . Life Austrian-Silesian o ...

Zur Erinnerung an Ernst Girschner
(PDF, 7 pages, in German) German entomologists Dipterists 1860 births 1914 deaths {{entomologist-stub