Johann Carl Megerle von Mühlfeld (1765 – 12 September 1840) was an Austrian naturalist who served as the first curator of insects at the Imperial Natural History Cabinet in Vienna. He took a special interest in molluscs. The genus ''

Megerlia ''Megerlia'' is a genus of brachiopods belonging to the family Kraussinidae. The species of this genus are found in Europe and Africa. Species: *''Megerlia acrura'' *''Megerlia granosa'' *''Megerlia truncata'' *''Megerlia willemoesi'' Ref ...

'' is named after him. Megerle was the son of Johann Baptist Megerle (1742–1813) who was ennobled as von Mühlfeld in 1803. He was a brother of Johann Georg Megerle von Mühlfeld. He collected natural history specimens which he sold to the Imperial Natural History Cabinet in 1808. He worked at the cabinet from 1786 in an honorary position along with Andreas Xaverius Stütz and in 1792 he became a custodian for the mineral collection. In 1797 he became the first curator of insects. From 1798 to 1806 he was involved in trading natural history specimens at the Bürgerspital. He named insects in the catalogues of the auction but these names are not to be used for taxonomic purposes. He collected insects and minerals both on his own and through purchases. From 1826 to 1840 he also managed an amateur theatre Mühlfeldtheater in Gentzgasse, Vienna. He worked at the

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna () is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museums and non-university research institutions in Austria and an important center of excellence for all matt ...

, Wien, until his retirement in 1835. Among the taxa Mergerle von Mühlfeld described are: * '' Melolontha pectoralis'', a kind of cockchafer beetle * The

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

genera ''

Angulus The Tellinidae are a family of marine bivalve molluscs of the order Cardiida. Commonly known as tellins or tellens, they live fairly deep in soft sediments in shallow seas and respire using long siphons that reach up to the surface of the sedimen ...

'', '' Chione'' and ''

Corbicula ''Corbicula'' is a genus of freshwater and brackish water clams, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Cyrenidae, the basket clams.Gofas, S. (2015). Cyrenidae Gray, 1847. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Sp ...

'', all in 1811 * The snail species ''Helix perspectiva'' in 1816 (now known as '' Discus perspectivus''). The

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

genus ''

'' King, 1850 is named after him, as well as the odostomiine

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

species '' Odostomia megerlei'' Locard, 1886. His manuscripts are held at the

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin The Berlin State Library (; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany, and a property of the German public cultural organization the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (). Founded i ...

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Further reading