Antonio Berlese

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Antonio Berlese

Antonio Berlese (born June 26, 1863 in Padua , † October 24, 1927 in Florence ) was an Italian entomologist .

Berlese mainly investigated the pests on fruit trees . He published over 300 articles and the book Gli insetti loro organizzazione, sviluppo, abitudini e rapporti con l'uomo (in two volumes, 1904 and 1923).

Reading funnel

Berlese invented the Berles funnel, a widely used device for automatically reading out soil insects and other soil organisms .

A funnel (E) contains the soil sample (D). The heat (F) of a light bulb (G) heats the soil sample. The bottom organisms try to escape the dehydration and the light and migrate downwards. Finally, they fall through a filter (C) into the collecting container (B) filled with a preservation liquid (A).

The storage of the soil substrate sample (D) is only shown schematically in the picture on the left: In general, the sample is not crumbled and poured into the funnel, but rather placed as a whole on a sieve base, which is intended to reduce the proportion of soil substrate in the collecting vessel (B).

This type of extraction is usually referred to as a Berlese or Tullgren funnel after the first description. In 1905 Berlese described the funnel method with heating through a warm water jacket , Albert Tullgren introduced heating from above with an incandescent lamp in 1918. Since expulsion under an incandescent lamp has largely prevailed, the apparatus is now known as the Berlese-Tullgren funnel.

According to Berlese, a type of water-containing embedding media for the microscopic examination of small arthropods is named, which, apart from the usual proportion of chloral hydrate and gum arabic , is characterized by the lack of glycerine , which is replaced here by acetic acid and glucose . According to more recent studies, however, Berlese did not use this type, but a glycerine-containing medium according to Hoyer for his microscopic preparations .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary in the pest science indicator. Volume 3, No. 12, December 1927, p. 135.
  2. ^ European Association of Acarologists: Acarid Phylogeny and Evolution: Adaptation in Mites and Ticks. Springer Netherlands, 2002, ISBN 1-4020-0465-6 .
  3. ↑ Antonio Berlese: Apparecchio per raccogliere presto ed in gran numero piccoli Artropodi. In: Redia. Vol. 2, 1905, pp. 85-90.
  4. ↑ Irwin M. Newell: An Autosegregator for Use in Collecting Soil-Inhabiting Arthropods. In: Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. Vol. 74, No. 4, Oct 1955, pp. 389-392. JSTOR 3224174
  5. ↑ Albert Tullgren: A very simple read-out device for terricole animal faunas. In: Journal of Applied Entomology. Vol. 4, 1918, pp. 149-150.
  6. ↑ MS Upton: Aqueous gum-chloral slide mounting media, an historical review. In: Bulletin of Entomological Research. vol. 83, 1993, pp. 267-274.
  7. ^ HF Hoyer: Contributions to histological technology. 3. Inclusion liquids. In: Biological Zentralblatt. vol. 2, 1882, pp. 23-24.
  8. ↑ M. Castagnoli, F. Pegazzano: Catalog of the Berlese Acaroteca. Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoologica Agraria, 1985, pp. V-vi.

literature

  • W. Dunger: Animals in the soil. 4th edition. Westarp Sciences, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89432-424-7 .
  • W. Dunger, HJ Fiedler: Methods of soil biology. 2nd Edition. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, 1997, ISBN 3-8274-0870-9 .

Web links

Commons : Antonio Berlese  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Berlese, Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Padua
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1927
Place of death Florence