Johan Christian Fabricius

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered<ref>Bengt-Olaf Landin 1971 Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol 4, pp. 512–513. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.</ref> one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for the modern insect classification.

Biography

Johann Christian Fabricius was born on 7 January 1745 at Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig, where his father was a doctor.<ref name="Damkaer"/><ref name="Sneli"/> He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762.<ref name="Dansk"/> Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga to Uppsala, where he studied under Carl Linnaeus for two years.<ref name="Dansk"/> On his return, he started work on his {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which was finally published in 1775.<ref name="Dansk"/> Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, who worked as a consultant at Frederiks Hospital.<ref name="Dansk"/>

Fabricius was appointed a professor in Copenhagen in 1770, and in 1775 or 1776, the University of Kiel appointed Fabricius professor of natural history and economics, promising that they would build a natural history museum and a botanical garden.<ref name="Sneli"/> Although he tried to resign three times, on one occasion only being prevented by an appeal from his students to the Danish King and Duke of Schleswig, Christian VII,<ref name="Sneli"/> Fabricius held the position at Kiel for the rest of his life.<ref name="Damkaer"/>

During his time in Kiel, Fabricius repeatedly travelled to London in the summer to study the collections of British collectors, such as Joseph Banks and Dru Drury.<ref name="petymol">Template:Cite book</ref> Towards the end of his career, Fabricius spent much of his time living in Paris, where he frequently met with naturalists such as Georges Cuvier and Pierre André Latreille;<ref name="Sneli"/> he was also interested in the events of the French Revolution. On hearing of the British attack on Copenhagen in 1807, Fabricius returned to Kiel, damaging his already fragile health. He died on 3 March 1808, at the age of 63.<ref name="Sneli"/> His daughter died in an accident in Paris, but he was survived by two sons, who both studied medicine.<ref name="Damkaer">Template:Cite book</ref>

Evolution

The evolutionary ideas of Fabricius are not well known. He believed that man originated from the great apes and that new species could be formed by the hybridization of existing species.<ref name="Complete 2008">Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 512–513.</ref> He also has been called the "Father of Lamarckism" because of his belief that new species could form from morphological adaptation.<ref name="Complete 2008"/><ref>Kragh, Helge; Nielsen, Henry. (2008). Science in Denmark: A Thousand-year History. Aarhus University Press. p. 210. Template:ISBN "Some historians of science have pointed out so many similarities between Fabricius and Lamarck that they find it possible the Frenchman in Paris was inspired by the Dane, implying that the latter was, in reality, "the father of Lamarckism".</ref> Fabricius wrote about the influence of environment on development of species and selection phenomena (females preferring the strongest males).<ref name="Complete 2008"/><ref name="Tuxen"/>

Works

Template:See also Fabricius is considered one of the greatest entomologists of the 18th century.<ref name="Sneli"/> He was a greater observer of insects than his more botanically-minded mentor, Carl Linnaeus. Fabricius named 9,776 species of insects, compared to Linnaeus' tally of around 3,000.<ref name="Tuxen"/> He identified many species of Tenebrionidae from the Egyptian Sinai on the basis of other entomologists' collections.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fabricius added two distinct areas to the classification system. He considers both artificial and natural characteristics. Artificial characteristics allow for the determination of a species, and natural ones allow for the relationship to other genera and varieties.<ref name="Tuxen"/>

In contrast to Linnaeus' classification of the insects, which was based primarily on the number of wings, and their form, Fabricius used the form of the mouthparts to discriminate the orders (which he termed "classes").<ref name="Tuxen">Template:Cite journal</ref> He stated "those whose nourishment and biology are the same, must then belong to the same genus."<ref name="Grimaldi">Template:Cite book</ref> Fabricius' system remains the basis of insect classification today, although the names he proposed are not. For instance, his name for the order containing the beetles was "Eleutherata", rather than the modern "Coleoptera", and he used "Piezata" for Hymenoptera; his term Glossata is still in use, but for a slightly smaller group among the Lepidoptera, rather than the whole order. Fabricius also foresaw that the male genitalia would provide useful characters for systematics, but could not apply that insight himself.<ref name="Grimaldi"/>

Fabricius was the first to divide the Staphylinidae (rove beetles), which Linnaeus had considered a single genus that he called "Staphylinus", establishing in 1775 the genus Paederus. He also described 77 species of Staphylinidae.<ref name=amnh>Template:Cite journal [Fabricius: pp. 61–62]</ref>

His major works on systematic entomology were:<ref name="Tuxen"/>

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1775)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1776)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1781). Full title: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1787)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1792–1799)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1801)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1803)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1804)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1805)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1807)

Many of his works can be found in digital libraries:

• Biodiversity Heritage Library (24 items<ref name=date20150328/>)
• Google Books (24 items<ref name=date20150328/>)
• Gallica (12 items<ref name=date20150328/>)
• HathiTrust (1 item<ref name=date20150328/><ref name=chezHathiTrust>Species insectorum: vol. 1, vol. 2</ref>)

Fabricius' collections are shared between the Natural History Museum, London, the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Paris, the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford, the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, the Zoological Museum in Kiel, and the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Copenhagen.<ref name="Sneli">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Fabricius also wrote a few works on economics, although these are much less important than his zoological works. They include {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1773), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1786–1790) and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1781).<ref name="Dansk">Template:Cite book</ref>

Further reading

• Template:De-ADB
• Template:NDB
• ZMCU Collection contents online
• Digital version of Entomologia systematica, emendata et aucta
• Henriksen, Kai L. (1932) Johann Christian Fabricius, pp. 76–80 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.

External links

• Circumscriptional names
• AnimalBase Comprehensive Fabricius literature and Fabricius taxa list.
• ITIS "Taxon authors": list of taxa described by Fabricius
• Template:BHL author
• Encyclopedia of Life−EOL.org: Taxa described by Fabricius — Type Fabricius into the search box, complete and many supported by images.]
• An accentuated list of the British Lepidoptera London 1858 — biography on page XVI gives Fabricius' own account of his travels.