Karl-Johan Hedqvist (18 July 1917 – 27 December 2009) was a Swedish entomologist who focused on

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s (Hymenoptera), especially

chalcid wasp Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, me ...

s and other

parasitoid wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causin ...

s. He described 260 species and over 70 genera of wasps. Hedqvist was born on 18 July 1917 in Bodarna of

Västerbotten County Västerbotten County ( sv, Västerbottens län) is a county or ''län'' in the north of Sweden. It shares the borders with the counties of Västernorrland, Jämtland, and Norrbotten, as well as the Norwegian county of Nordland and the Gulf of Bot ...

in northern Sweden. In 1939, he took his first insect-related job as a field assistant looking at

forest pest A pest is any animal or plant harmful to humans or human concerns. The term is particularly used for creatures that damage crops, livestock, and forestry or cause a nuisance to people, especially in their homes. Humans have modified the environ ...

insects. Retaining a focus on forest entomology, he moved to Stockholm for further studies and an assistant position at the Swedish Forest Research Institute from 1949. In this capacity, he travelled extensively around Sweden, working on pest management. At the same time he was accumulated up a large personal insect collection and started publishing widely (from 1945) on faunistics and applied entomology, on a subjects across the major insect orders

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

and

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

. In 1951 he married and settled in Vallentuna, north of Stockholm. He and his wife eventually had two children. In the mid 1950s, Hedqvist embarked upon his career as a taxonomist, describing first a new

bark beetle A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family (Curculionidae). Although the ...

and then what would become a very large number of Hymenoptera species and genera. In 1959 he was employed as a research assistant position at the

Swedish Museum of Natural History The Swedish Museum of Natural History ( sv, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, literally, the National Museum of Natural History), in Stockholm, is one of two major museums of natural history in Sweden, the other one being located in Gothenburg. The ...

(NHRM, for ''Naturhistoriska riksmuseet''), where he had the opportunity to focus more on taxonomy. Nevertheless, he left the position in favour of employment as a field entomologist back at the Swedish Forest Research Institute in 1963. In 1971, he moved back to the NHRM, holding a newly established position as a taxonomist with special focus on parasitoid wasps, funded by the

Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council ( sv, Vetenskapsrådet) is a Government agency in Sweden established in 2001, with the responsibility to support and develop basic scientific research. Its objective is for Sweden to be a leading nation in scienti ...

. Hedqvist received an honorary doctorate from

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

in 1977 for his work on the taxonomy of parasitoids. During his time at NHRM he supervised two successful PhD students in the systematics of parasitoid wasps. Hedqvist stayed at the Stockholm museum until his retirement in 1984. After retirement, he kept up his taxonomic and faunistic work from home, as well as his active involvement in the Stockholm Entomological Society, including serving as president, but published only a few more taxonomic contributions. In 2003 he published a checklist of chalcid wasps of Sweden, based primarily on his own collection, that is known as likely the most comprehensive database of Swedish chalcids. He died on 27 December 2009. In 2011 his collection of more than 50,000 Hymenoptera from around the world was purchased from his relatives by the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

. At least six species of wasps have been named for Hedqvist.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication under the terms of th
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The source of the text is: Forshage, Mattias; Broad, Gavin R.; Papilloud, Natalie Dale-Skey; Vårdal, Hege (2016).
Insect species described by Karl-Johan Hedqvist
. ''Journal of Hymenoptera Research''. 51: 101–158. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedqvist, Karl-Johan 1917 births 2009 deaths Swedish entomologists Hymenopterists People from Västerbotten County Scientists from Stockholm 20th-century Swedish zoologists