Johannes or John Waterstradt (8 March 1869 – 1944) was a German-born Danish natural history collector and mineral prospector in Southeast Asia. He collected birds, orchids, butterflies and moths from the Papua New Guinea and Indonesian regions for several European collectors including

Otto Staudinger Otto Staudinger (2 May 1830 – 13 October 1900) was a German entomologist and a natural history dealer considered one of the largest in the world specialising in the collection and sale of insects to museums, scientific institutions, and indi ...

and

Hans Fruhstorfer Hans Fruhstorfer (7 March 1866, in Passau, Germany – 9 April 1922, in Munich) was a German explorer, insect trader and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He collected and described new species of exotic butterflies, especially in Ada ...

. The mountain peacock pheasant '' Polyplectron inopinatum'' was named and described by

Walter Rothschild Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was present ...

from a specimen collected by him. He was a pioneer of commercial orchid cultivation and hybridization in Denmark. Waterstradt came from a Mecklenburg family that had moved to Denmark. After school, he was expected to join the family business in horticulture but he joined the navy after a year. He had a childhood interest in natural history but an interest in entomology grew after meeting a group of German entomological collectors aboard a ship to Australia. He joined them, Mitschke, Schwarz and Sturm, collectors for

, on a collection trip to Sri Lanka. Realizing that he was more capable than these collectors Waterstradt began to collect for

and Staudinger. He also collected orchids for Hugh Low and Co., London in Kinabalu. In 1895 he began to consider an import-export business from Palawan, prospecting for minerals and coal while also collecting natural history specimens. In 1899 an attempt on his life was made which Waterstradt attributed to Enche Musim, possibly related to oil concession agreements with the Sultan of Brunei. He was shot in the right shoulder and was subsequently forced to write with his left hand. In 1904, Waterstradt returned to Europe and married Laura Fritzberger and managed the family garden business while also growing orchids that he had collected which he began to sell. His orchid business was the only one in Denmark at the time. He made trips to Mount Kinabalu in 1908 and 1912 but returned due to poor health and convalesced in London. He died in 1944 in Copenhagen. ''Clytellus waterstradti'', a beetle, is named after him from his collections.

References

External links

National Herbarium

Cattleya John Waterstradt - an orchid hybrid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterstradt, John Danish naturalists 1869 births 1944 deaths German emigrants to Denmark