Johann Ludwig Christian Carl Gravenhorst (14 November 1777 – 14 January 1857), sometimes Jean Louis Charles or Carl, was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

entomologist,

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and rep ...

, and

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

Life

Gravenhorst was born in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. His early interest in insects was encouraged by two of his professors, both amateur entomologists. He entered the

University of Helmstedt The University of Helmstedt (german: Universität Helmstedt; official Latin name: ''Academia Julia'', "Julius University"), was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810. History Found ...

to study law in 1797. However, the death of his father two years later left him a great fortune; so he was able to change his direction. He enrolled at the University of Göttingen where he followed the courses of

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He ...

. He returned to present his thesis to Helmstädt on a subject of entomology. He went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1802 and there met Georges Cuvier,

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...

, and Alexandre Brongniart. Parallel to his studies, he assembled, thanks to his financial means, a very important natural history collection. In 1805, he obtained a professorial chair in Göttingen and published the following year ''Monographie Coleopterorum''. Among his work, Gravenhorst's studies of the parasitic wasps is especially important, but he also worked in herpetology. He settled in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1810, teaching natural history at the university of the city. The following year, the university was transferred to Breslau. There he became director of the Breslau Natural History Museum and installed his own collections there. He started to suffer from mental disorders after 1825, stopping all scientific work in the year 1840, and withdrawing completely into himself in 1856. He died in Breslau.

Achievements

Gravenhorst was a specialist in Staphylinidae and

Ichneumonidae The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species cur ...

describing many new

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 ...

. He was also one of the first

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

specialists. Two species of lizards are named in his honor: '' Liolaemus gravenhorstii'' and '' Trachylepis gravenhorstii''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Gravenhorst", p. 106).

Species described by Gravenhorst

*'' Ambystoma opacum'', the marbled salamander of the eastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

*''Rana cancrivora'', now ''

Fejervarya cancrivora ''Fejervarya'' is a genera of frogs in the family Dicroglossidae found in Asia. First proposed in 1915 by István József Bolkay, a Hungarian naturalist, the genus did not see widespread adoption at first. As late as the 1990s it was generally i ...

'', the crab-eating frog of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

br>
*'' Leiocephalus schreibersii'', the red-sided curly-tailed lizard of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

*'' Xenochrophis melanzostus'', the Andaman keelback snake

Works

*''Monographia Coleopterorum Micropterorum''. Göttingen: Henricus Dieterich, xvi+248 pp, tabula. (1802) Click for PD

*''Coleoptera Microptera Brunsvicensia nec non exoticorum quotquot exstant in collectionibus entomologorum Brunsvicensium in genera familias et species distribuit''. Braunschweig: Carolus Reichard, lxvi+207 pp. Gravenhorst, J.L.C (1806) Click for PD

*''Ichneumologia Europaea''. Vratislaviae, sumtibus auctoris. 3 volumes (including supplement). pp. xxxi, 827, (4); 989; 1097, with 2 engraved plates and 2 folded tables.(1829) – Contents I: Generalia, Ichneumones, Supplementa, Indices – II: Tryphones, Trogos, Alomyas, Cryptos – III: Pimplas, Metopios, Bassos, Banchos, Ophiones, Hellwigias, Acaenitas, Xoridas, Supplementa
BHL
digitised text of all 3 volumes.

Collections

* Museum of Natural History at University of Wrocław
Armenology Research National Center

References

*Townes, H. K. 1965. Labeling in the Gravenhorst collection of Ichneumonidae (Hymen.) ''Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne'' 35: 403–407. Source Kraig Adler (1989). Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

External links

Works by Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst
at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database – version 1.0 – Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravenhorst, Johann Ludwig Christian 1777 births 1857 deaths German entomologists Scientists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick University of Göttingen alumni University of Helmstedt alumni European University Viadrina faculty University of Breslau faculty