Wilhelm Giesbrecht (1854–1913) 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 ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, specialising in

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s, during the "golden age of copepodology". Giesbrecht was born in

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

in 1854, and was educated in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, where in 1881 he earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

copepods under Professor

Karl Möbius Karl August Möbius (7 February 1825 in Eilenburg – 26 April 1908 in Berlin) was a German zoologist who was a pioneer in the field of ecology and a former director of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Early life Möbius was born in Eilen ...

. He then moved to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to work at the zoological station there, staying there for the remainder of his life. His most famous work is the 1892 monograph
Systematik und Faunistik der pelagischen Copepoden des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden Meeres-Abschnitte
' ("Systematics and faunistics of the pelagic copepods of the Gulf of Naples and neighbouring seas"). In 1904, at the request of

Anton Dohrn Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. He worked ...

, Giesbrecht was made an

honorary professor Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

. He is commemorated in a number of species names: *'' Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii'' Lang, 1884 *'' Buntonia giesbrechti'' (G. W. Müller, 1894) *'' Onchocorycaeus giesbrechti'' (F. Dahl, 1894) *'' Stenhelia giesbrechti'' T. & A. Scott, 1896 *'' Pseudocyclopia giesbrechti'' Wolfenden, 1902 *'' Xanthocalanus giesbrechti'' I. C. Thompson, 1903 *'' Aetideus giesbrechti'' (Cleve, 1904) *'' Arietellus giesbrechti'' G. O. Sars, 1905 *'' Conchoecetta giesbrechti'' (G. W. Müller, 1906) *'' Paramphiascopsis giesbrechti'' (G. O. Sars, 1906) *'' Harpacticus giesbrechti'' Klie, 1927 *'' Pseudoclausia giesbrechti'' Bocquet & Stock, 1960 *'' Candacia giesbrechti'' Grice & Lawson, 1977 *'' Schoenocaulon ghiesbreghtii'' Greenman, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 43: 20. 1907 Link to a Wilhelm Giesbrecht image gallery with examples of his illustrations of copepods http://gallery.obs-vlfr.fr/gallery2/v/Aquaparadox/album319/

References

1854 births 1913 deaths German carcinologists 19th-century German zoologists University of Kiel alumni 20th-century German zoologists {{Germany-zoologist-stub