Otto Lugger (16 September 1844 – 21 May 1901) was a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n-born American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and botanist who served as the State Entomologist of the U.S. State of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Biography

Lugger was born in

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

in the Prussian

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 1918 ...

where his father was a chemistry professor. After studying at the Gymnasium in Hagen, he joined the Prussian army as a cavalry lieutenant. Along with his parents, the family moved to the United States in 1864, and Lugger found work as an engineer in the army. While working on surveys around the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, he also began to collect insect specimens and came to know C.V. Riley. When Riley became State Entomology of Missouri in 1868, Lugger became an assistant. He helped produce nine annual reports before 1875 when he married Lina Krokmann and moved to Baltimore to become curator of the collections of the Maryland Academy of Sciences. He became an assistant in the entomology division of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

(USDA) in 1885. He was appointed entomologist and botanist at the Minnesota Station in 1888 and later became a state entomologist, a position he held until his death from pneumonia. Some of his work was on the control of chinch bugs using fungi, the spores of which he attempted to propagate, and investigations on locusts including the now extinct

Rocky Mountain locust The Rocky Mountain locust (''Melanoplus spretus'') is an extinct species of grasshopper that ranged through the western half of the United States and some western portions of Canada with large numbers seen until the end of the 19th century. Sight ...

. Lugger died at his home in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

on 21 May 1901.

References

External links