Edmund Reitter

Life cycle of the rhinoceros beetle from egg to larvae and pupa to adult animal; from Edmund Reitter's Fauna Germanica. The beetles of the German Empire. Volume II (1909)

Edmund Reitter (born October 22, 1845 in Müglitz , Moravia ; † March 15, 1920 in Paskau , Moravia) was an Austrian merchant, beetle collector , insect dealer and entomologist .

Life

Reitter can be seen as an example of an autodidact at the end of the 19th century. His friend Ludwig Ganglbauer described his abilities to do this as absolutely ingenious.

His father was a forester for Count Larisch-Moennich in Karwin . Edmund would have liked this job too, but had no prospect of a job. After elementary school and four years of secondary school in Troppau , he joined the count as an agronomist in 1859, but still found enough time for further training and occupation with nature. B. collecting butterflies. Shortly afterwards he switched to the beetles; In 1867 he already undertook a collecting trip with the well-known beetle researchers Ludwig Miller , his most important sponsor, and Marian von Lomnicki to the Eastern Carpathians . Back then, collecting insects - like "botanizing" (collecting plants) (or " philately ") - had become a popular "passion" of broader circles, so that some "missing pieces" could also be purchased.

Reitter, meanwhile in Paskau economics officer (pond manager and financial advisor) to Count Saint-Genois since 1869 and married since 1871, was undoubtedly very enterprising. In 1879 he opened an insect and insect literature store in Vienna, initially called the “Natural History Institute”, and thus financed further collecting trips. His agents reached the Caucasus, Armenia, Siberia and Mongolia. Numerous collecting trips took him to Eastern and Southeastern Europe in particular. He was extremely successful as a collector, among other things because he was the first in many areas to use the insect sieve to remove beetles from leaf litter and the like the like - a method that he made “palatable” to many colleagues. In 1881 he moved his business to Mödling and from there in 1891 at the request of his second wife, with whom he had five children, back to Paskau for good. For a while he also tried to pursue an academic career, for example in Munich, where a branch of his business still exists. With his louder (open, also loud), straightforward manner, he initiated many developments in entomology of his time or, like a catalyst, helped them to breakthrough, also at the academic and museum level, since these areas were yes (at that time e.g. in Vienna) worked closely together. In terms of publishing, he saw it as his task to provide all native beetle families in tables (for identification) and catalogs (last culminating in 1906 in the Catalogus Coleopterorum Europae, Caucasi et Armeniae Rossicae von Heyden, Reitter und Weise, 3rd edition, self-published) for amateurs open up.

At a later age he began to be interested in the occult. Towards the end of his life Reitter expressed spiritualistic inclinations and experiences. In 1911 he claims to have learned from the spirit realm that his friend Ganglbauer was in great danger in June. The latter actually died in June - albeit not until 1912. The last years of life were restricted by bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema, but he practically worked from bed to the end.

Edmund Reitter was best known as an expert on beetles in the Palearctic . From 1900 he was Imperial Councilor and in 1881 co-founder and editor of the " Wiener Entomologische Zeitung ". He was also a member and honorary member of the German Entomological Society in Berlin, the Association for Silesian Entomology in Wroclaw , the Museum Francisco-Carolinum in Linz , the Association for Entomology in Austria ob der Enns, the Société entomologique de Russie in Saint Petersburg , the Société entomologique d'Égypte and the Nederlandsche entomologische Vereeniging in Rotterdam . As a corresponding member, he worked at the Natural Science Association in Troppau , the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica in Helsingfors and the Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural in Madrid .

The collection of the Käfer Reitters is now part of the zoological collections in the Hungarian Natural Science Museum in Budapest , where he sold it for 30,000 kr - an offer from the USA for the same amount in $ was available! It contains more than 30,000 identified species, including the type specimens of around 5,000 species, subspecies or varieties.

Publications

His main work is the

Fauna Germanica. The beetles of the German Empire . 5 volumes, KG Lutz, Stuttgart 1908-1916 (digital: Edmund Reitter: Fauna Germanica - Die Käfer des Deutschen Reiches , digital library , volume 134 (CD-ROM), Directmedia Publishing GmbH, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-89853-534- 7 ).

I. Adephaga (1908). II. Lamellicornia (1909). III. Diversiccrnia and Heteromera (1911). IV. Phytophaga (1908). V. Rhynchophora (1916).

This work, written with numerous specialists and illustrated by around 170 plates, is what establishes Reitter's fame to this day. He created it on behalf of the German Natural History Teachers' Association; it was printed in an edition of 35,000 copies, was therefore cheap and was hardly missing in any secondary school library. The detailed blackboard images are often quite incorrect - but this does not fundamentally affect their usefulness.

literature

Alfred Hetschko (Ed.): Festschrift for Edmund Reitter's seventieth birthday on October 22, 1915 = Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 34, 1915, pp. 215–400.

Franz Heikertinger: Edmund Reitter. An obituary. In: Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 38, 1920, pp. 1–16 ( PDF ).

Christa Riedl-Dorn: Reitter, Edmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 402 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Edmund Reitter - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ (1845–1915), geologist, zoologist (especially beetle researcher) and paleontologist from Buworow .
↑ He had to sell them because, due to the war, he already had a large part of his income from industrial holdings and the like. Ä. had lost or would lose.
↑ Sigmund Schenkling published an explanation of the scientific beetle names from Reitter's Fauna Germanica . Stuttgart 1917. Also: Adolf Horion : Addendum to the "Fauna Germanica". The Beetles of the German Empire by Edmund Reitter . Hans Goecke Verlag, Krefeld 1935.

personal data
SURNAME	Reitter, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian merchant, beetle collector, insect dealer and entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 22, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mohelnice (Krupka) (Bohemian Müglitz)
DATE OF DEATH	March 15, 1920
Place of death	Paskau

[1] (1845–1915), geologist, zoologist (especially beetle researcher) and paleontologist from Buworow .

[2] He had to sell them because, due to the war, he already had a large part of his income from industrial holdings and the like. Ä. had lost or would lose.

[3] Sigmund Schenkling published an explanation of the scientific beetle names from Reitter's Fauna Germanica . Stuttgart 1917. Also: Adolf Horion : Addendum to the "Fauna Germanica". The Beetles of the German Empire by Edmund Reitter . Hans Goecke Verlag, Krefeld 1935.