Ewald Heinrich Rübsaamen (20 May 1857,

Haardt The Haardt () is a range of wooded, sandstone hills in the state of Rhineland Palatinate in southwestern Germany. The range is some long and lies within the Palatinate Forest (''Pfälzerwald''). Its highest point is the Kalmit, near Maikammer ...

– 17 March 1919, Metternich) was a German teacher, artist, and amateur entomologist who studied gall forming insects, especially the gall midges (

Cecidomyiidae Cecidomyiidae is a family of flies known as gall midges or gall gnats. As the name implies, the larvae of most gall midges feed within plant tissue, creating abnormal plant growths called galls. Cecidomyiidae are very fragile small insects usu ...

), and worked on pest control in grapes, most importantly on ''

Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...

''.

Rübsaamen was the second son of Johann Franz and Emilie Mathilde Johanne. His father manufactured precision mechanical instruments for mines. After school at

Weidenau Weidenau is a suburban part (Stadtteil) of the city Siegen in Germany. Weidenau, a northern part of Siegen, shares borders with Niedersetzen in the north, Geisweid in the north-west, the central part of Siegen in the south, Birlenbach in the ...

, Ewald entered the gymnasium in

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...

and in 1875 went to study mathematics at the Technical College in Karlsruhe. He however gave up studies after four semesters and began to train in art and returned to work as an arts teacher in Hilchenbach. He worked in a primary school in Steinhauserberg from 1878 and then moved to Siegen to head a private school. He also began to study botany and zoology. He took a special interest in gall insects including midges and related nematoceran flies. He described numerous species from collections. In 1891, following the death of his father, the family moved to Berlin and he worked at the Plant Physiology Institute while also attending the Royal Art School. He worked for Karl August Möbius at the Museum für Naturkunde. In 1909 he headed the state phylloxera control unit in Rhineland and was titled a professor in 1912 by the Ministry of Agriculture. His sister Rosa Wilhelmine Henriette (1852-1922) returned to Siegen and became a poet of repute. Rübsaamen clashed with the entomologist Jean-Jacques Kieffer on various matters. His archives are in the Humboldt University Berlin and his specimens are in the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History. Rübsaamen was a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle from 1917. He began to suffer from various illnesses of the heart and lung and died at the age of 61. File:Bathypolypus valdiviae1.jpg, ''Bathypolypus valdiviae'' File:Austrorossia mastigophora.jpg, ''Austrorossia mastigophora'' File:Benthoctopus levis.jpg, ''Benthoctopus levis'' File:CirrothaumaMurDraw2.jpg, ''Cirrothauma murrayi'' File:Velodona togata.jpg, ''Velodona togata''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rübsaamen, Ewald Heinrich German entomologists 1857 births 1919 deaths Scientific illustrators