Charles Koch

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Charles Koch (right) doing research in the Namib Desert
Plaque in the Gobabeb Training and Research Center

Charles Koch (also Charley Koch), born Carl Koch (born January 6, 1904 in Vienna , † February 23, 1970 in Windhoek , Namibia ) was an Austrian philosopher , lawyer and entomologist . He was the initiator and first director of the Gobabeb Training and Research Center , a research and training station in Namibia, which is located in the Namib Desert . Scientific Koch dealt primarily with the scheme of Molurinen , a group of the Tenebrionidae , as well as the ecology of the desert fauna. He has taxonomically recorded a number of insects . He received his doctorate in 1960. rer. nat. at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

Studies and first employment

Koch studied philosophy and law at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1929. Immediately afterwards, he was employed as a curator at the private entomologico Pietro Rossi museum of Prince Alessandro C. della Torre e Tasso in Trieste and Duino , where he began his studies of the Tenebrionids, which became the focus of his research life.

In the 1930s Koch was the editor of the coleopterological section of the Munich Entomological Society .

From 1937 to 1948 Koch was curator of entomology at the then private museum “G. Frey ” in Tutzing .

Koch as curator at the Transvaal Museum in South Africa

Koch conducted research on tenebrionids in Africa and took part in the Smithsonian-Harvard Peabody Expedition to South West Africa in 1949 . The extensive tenebrionid fauna moved him to stay in South Africa . He received a position at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria , funded by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) ; in 1953 he was employed there as a permanent curator for coleopteras .

Koch conducted research in the arid areas of Africa and demonstrated a close phylogenetic connection between Somalia and South West Africa.

He participated in some of the Marshall Expeditions sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard Peabody Museum in 1951 and between 1956 and 1958 to study the way of life of the Bushmen.

Koch and the Gobabeb Training and Research Center in Namibia

Aerial view of the Gobabeb Training and Research Center

In 1958, Koch accompanied an expedition to the Namib Desert, where he found a large variety of beetle species. At Koch's suggestion, the Namib Desert Research Association was founded and he was able to convince the South African Museum Association to set up and finance the Gobabeb Training and Research Center in what was then South West Africa. The Transvaal Museum managed this station from 1963 until Namibia's independence in 1990. From 1962, Koch was founding director for the remaining years of his life.

Honors

Two types of reptiles are named after him: Colopus kochii and Ptenopus kochi .

Publications

Koch has made a variety of scientific publications. An overview of his publications up to 1944 can be found in Wikispecies and for his life's work in the database tenebrionidbase.org

Other publications are (incomplete):

  • Koch, C. 1957. Information on the distribution and way of life of the white desert tebrionids. In KUHNELT, SB (Jst. Akad. Wiss. Math.-nat.), I, No. 166, 108-12.
  • Koch, C. 1959. The Namib dunes and their fauna. Der Kreis, Windhoek, 6, 198-200.
  • Koch, C. 1961. Some aspects of abundant life in the vegetationless sand of the Namib dunes: Positive psammotropism in Tenebrionid beetles. JSWA Scient. Soc. XV, 8-34, 77-92.
  • Koch, C. 1963. An illustrated account of a major flood in the Kuisib river. The circle. African monthly notebooks, 6:39

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Incomplete list of Koch's taxonomic authorship. Accessed November 7, 2016.
  2. ^ Georg Frey: Dr. Carl Koch in memory. In: Entomological Works Museum G. Frey 21. 1970, online at ZOBODAT - with photo of Koch in old age.
  3. ↑ H. Gebien: Preliminary observations on the catalog tenebrionids. 1938, PDF on ZOBODAT
  4. ^ Mary Gunn, LEW Codd: Botanical Exploration Southern Africa
  5. ↑ Marshall expedition on der.org, accessed on 5 November 2016th
  6. ↑ Gobabeb Training and Research Center website.Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5 , p. 144
  8. ↑ Carl Koch on species.wikimedia.org, accessed on November 7 2016th
  9. ↑ Koch on tenebrionidbase.org, accessed November 8, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Cook, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Carl (maiden name); Cook, Charley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1970
Place of death Windhoek , Namibia