Dr Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson (26 November 1809 in

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...

– 18 December 1848 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a trained medical doctor and a German

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 ...

. He was the author of many articles about insects mainly in ''

Archiv für Naturgeschichte ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte'' was a German-language journal for natural history. It was founded by A. F. A. Wiegmann in 1835. The journal was published in Berlin from 1835 to 1926. There were 92 published volumes. From 1912 to 1926 each volume w ...

''. When writing in Latin, he latinised ''Wilhelm'' to ''Guillelmus'' becoming either ''Guil. F. Erichson'' or ''G.F. Erichson.'' He wrote a paper in 1842 on insect species collected at

Woolnorth Cape Grim, officially Kennaook / Cape Grim, is the northwestern point of Tasmania, Australia. The Peerapper name for the cape is recorded as ''Kennaook''. It is the location of the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station and of the Cape Gri ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia, which was the first detailed research published on the biogeography of Australian animals and was very influential in raising scientific interest in

Australian fauna The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of animals; some 46% of birds, 69% of mammals, 94% of amphibians, and 93% of reptiles that inhabit the continent are endemic to it. This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent ...

. Erichson was the curator of the Coleoptera collections at the ''Museum fur Naturkunde'' in Berlin from 1834 to 1848. Erichson's Scarabaeidae classification is nearly identical to the modern one.

Works

*''Genera Dytiscorum''. Berlin (1832) *''Die Käfer der Mark Brandenburg''. Two volumes Berlin (1837-1839) Click for pd

*''Genera et species Staphylinorum insectorum''. Berlin 1839-1840) *''Entomographien''. Berlin (1840) * 1839: IX. Insecten. ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte'' 5(2): 281–375
PDF
* 1842: Beitrag zur Insecten-Fauna von Vandiemensland, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der geographischen Verbreitung der Insecten. ''Archiv für Naturgeschichte'' 8: 83-287
PDF
*''Bericht über die wissenschaftlichen Leistungen auf dem Gebiete der Entomologie''. Berlin (1838) *''Naturgeschichte der Insecten Deutschlands''. Berlin (1845-1848)''Naturgeschichte der Insecten Deutschlands''

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...

, Retrieved 2 January 2014

References

1809 births 1848 deaths People from Stralsund German entomologists People from the Province of Pomerania {{entomologist-stub