Anna Levinson

Anna Levinson

Anna Levinson (* 8. January 1939 in Tel-Aviv ; † 13. May 2015 ) was a German zoologist and entomologist who in Starnberg lived and since 1971 at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology and since 2004 at the Max Planck Institute worked for ornithology in Seewiesen and Erling (Upper Bavaria).

life and work

Anna Levinson was born in Tel-Aviv as the daughter of the engineer Isaak Bar-Ilan and the mathematician Frieda Bar-Ilan. After graduating from a mathematics and science-oriented grammar school, she first acquired a teaching diploma and later taught biology at a grammar school. She studied zoology, parasitology and chemistry and graduated in 1964 with an M. Sc. ( Magister Scientiarum ) at the University of Jerusalem .

As part of her M.Sc. work, she investigated the song patterns and corresponding behavioral reactions of the locust locusts Locusta migratoria and Schistocerca gregaria (Acrididae) and also dealt with the causes of insect diapause . She did her doctorate with Rachel Galun and Ezechiel Rivnay on the subject of attractants and antibodies to contain harmful insect populations , especially those of cotton owls ( Spodoptera littoralis), bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) and khapra beetles (Trogoderma granarium) , for which she received the degree of Dr. rer. nat. received. During the years 1965 to 1968 she gave the introductory course in entomology at the University of Jerusalem and at the same time investigated the possibility of containing populations of the extremely harmful date palm scale Parlatoria blanchardii with the help of ladybirds of the genera Chilocorus, Parascymnus and Scymnus . In 1970 at the Zoological Institute of the University of Frankfurt am Main she worked on the aggregation and dispersion behavior of the bed bug Cimex lectularius and discovered the intraspecific assembly and alarm pheromones of this bed bug species.

In 1971 she became a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen (Upper Bavaria) and since then, together with her husband Hermann Levinson, has been researching the nutritional and sensory physiology of harmful insect and mite species, in particular the mode of action and structure elucidation of eating and eating pair-stimulating irritants ( kairomones and sex pheromones ), the reduction of the population density of harmful organisms on foodstuffs by means of insectistasis and acaristasis and, since 1988, also through ethnozoology, i. H. cultural-historical aspects of zoology.

She was a member of the German Society for General and Applied Entomology and the Munich Entomological Society.

Services

Anna Levinson has with domestic and foreign research groups for many years cooperates, published more than 100 scientific articles and attractant traps, stock harmful beetle and moth species (mainly khapra beetle, Dorn skin beetles , tobacco beetles and grain moth , Indian meal moth , Anagasta kuehniella , Ephestia elutella and Cadra cautella ) developed which have been patented and used in practice in many countries.

Awards

Due to her achievements and publications, she received worldwide recognition and was awarded the title Leading Scientists of the World by the International Biographical Center in Cambridge in 2006 and the Karl Escherich Medal of the German Society for General and Applied Entomology in 2007 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Anna Levinson in the catalog of the German National Library