Karl Matthias Friedrich Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 14 December 1848 – 28 June 1915) was a German naturalist who specialised in the study of scorpions, centipedes, spiders and solfugids, and was noted for his monograph ''Scorpiones und Pedipalpi'' (Berlin) in 1899, which was an exhaustive survey of the taxonomy of the Order

Scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

es. From 1889 to 1914, he served as the Director of the ', which was destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and worked on

myriapods Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial. The fossil record of myriapods reaches back into the late Silurian, a ...

from 1901 to 1916.

Biography

Karl Kraepelin was born in

Neustrelitz Neustrelitz (; East Low German: ''Niegenstrelitz'') is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 ...

. He studied natural sciences in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, where he earned his PhD in 1873, and taught as a teacher of mathematics and sciences in schools in Leipzig and Hamburg from 1873 to 1889. In 1884 he became a member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

. He was a member of the Assembly of University Professors of Hamburg from 1901 and the Faculty Council of Colonial Institute from 1908. He was one of 7 children of scholar, stage actor and singer Karl Kraepelin (1817–1882), who had also founded a theological college. His younger brother,

Emil Kraepelin Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's ''Encyclopedia of Psychology'' identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychi ...

(1856–1926), was a pioneer in experimental psychiatry and Professor of Psychiatry in Munich from 1903 to 1922. Between 1903 and 1904 Karl, accompanied by Emil, set out on a five-month voyage, visiting Ceylon, India, Singapore and Java, and in 1908 they undertook a two-month trip to the

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 territorie ...

. Kraepelin gained worldwide recognition for his commitment to reform science education in schools. He authored several books on botany and zoology, among which, ' ("Guide for botany classes in middle and high schools"). He died in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, aged 66. Numerous species were named in his honour, e.g. ''

Boiga kraepelini ''Boiga kraepelini'', commonly known as the square-headed cat snake, Kelung cat snake, or Taiwanese tree snake is a species of mildly venomous, rear-fanged snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to East Asia and Southeast Asia ...

'', the square-headed cat snake, ''Physocypria kraepelini'' (an

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...

), ''

Clavatula kraepelini ''Clavatula kraepelini'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clavatulidae. Description The size of an adult shell varies between 25 mm and 37 mm. The shiny shell has a maroon color. Sometimes its bo ...

'' (a sea-snail), ''

Tetramorium ''Tetramorium'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae that includes more than 520 species. These ants are also known as pavement ants. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''Tetramorium'' was first described by Gustav Mayr in 1855 in the same publi ...

kraepelini'' (an ant), ''Iurus kraepelini'' (a scorpion) and many others.

Selected publications

*Kraepelin K (1887). "Die Deutschen Süsswasser-Bryozoen. I. Anatomisch-systematischer Teil ". ''Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg'' 10: 1-168 + Plates 1–7
Online.
(in German) *Kraepelin K (1900). "Über einige neue Gliederspinnen ". ''Abhandlungen und Verhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg'' 16 (1): 4. (in German). *Kraepelin K (1901). "Palpigradi und Solifugae. Heft 12 ". pp. xi + 1–159. In: ''Das Tierreich. Eine Zusammenstellung und Kennzeichnung der rezenten Tierformen''. (in German). *Kraepelin K (1903). "Scorpione und Solifugen Nordost-Afrikas, gesammelt 1900 und 1901 von Carlo Freihern von Erlanger und Oscar Neumann". ''Zoologische Jahrbücher. Abteilung für Systematik, Geographie und Biologie der Tiere'' 18: 557–578. (in German). *Kraepelin K (1908). "Die sekundären Geschlechtscharaktere der Skorpione, Pedipalpen und Solifugen ". ''Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten'' 25: 181–225.
/ref> (in German).

References

External links

*. (in German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Kraepelin, Karl German naturalists German entomologists 1848 births People from Neustrelitz 1915 deaths German arachnologists German taxonomists 19th-century German zoologists 20th-century German zoologists