Sámuel Fenichel (25 August 1868 – 12 March 1893) was a Hungarian naturalist, collector, and explorer who died after a very brief period of 14 months in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. His main collections were insect specimens and several species have been named after him. Fenichel was born in Nagyenyed and went to Bethlen College where he was influenced by Károly Herepey. Initially interested in archaeology, he spent some time working at the Bucharest archaeological museum from 1888. He travelled to

Dobrudja Dobruja or Dobrudja (; or ''Dobrudža''; , or ; ; Dobrujan Tatar: ''Tomrîğa''; Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and ) is a Geography, geographical and historical region in Southeastern Europe that has been divided since the 19th century betw ...

in Romania during which time he met Albert Grubauer, a German naturalist who was planning an expedition to New Guinea. Fenichel showed interest, resigned from his post and joined Grubauer but with the understanding that he would obtain material for the

Hungarian National Museum The Hungarian National Museum (, ) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is separate to the collection of int ...

. They reached

German New Guinea German New Guinea () consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups, and was part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , became a German protectorate in 188 ...

in 1891 and began collecting insect specimens. Grubauer left due to poor health but Fenichel stayed on collecting nearly 25000 specimens. Fenichel too fell ill, possibly from malaria, and in 1893 this led to severe kidney problems that led to his death at Stephansort. Fenichel was an inspiration for the naturalist-explorer

Lajos Bíró Lajos Bíró (; born Lajos Blau; 22 August 1880 – 9 September 1948) was a Hungarian novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote many films from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. Life He was born in Nagyvárad, Kingdom of Hunga ...

. Fenichel's collections including insects and objects of ethnographic interest are now in the Hungarian National Museum. A memorial plaque in Port Moresby University commemorates his life. Several species of insect described from his collections have been named after him including ''Coccorchestes fenicheli'', ''Eophileurus fenicheli'', and ''Euscheloribates fenicheli''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenichel, Samuel People from Aiud Hungarian entomologists 1868 births 1893 deaths 19th-century Hungarian people People from Austria-Hungary People from the German colonial empire