Fritz Süffert

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Fritz Süffert (born September 18, 1891 in Bischweiler , Alsace ; † April 24, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German biologist and an expert in the field of lepidopterology for the construction of wings and the development of structural colors on the wings of butterflies .

Life

After attending grammar school in Strasbourg , Süffert studied biology at the University of Munich , especially with Richard Hertwig and Richard Goldschmidt , whose assistant he also became. At times he worked with Max Hartmann at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin , from 1920 he was his assistant at the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology . From 1924 to 1936 he worked at the University of Freiburg as a lecturer and assistant in the successor to Otto Mangold for Hans Spemann , who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1935 . In 1936 he moved back to Berlin, where he held lectures at the university as an adjunct professor and until his death was editor and editor of the journal Die Naturwissenschaften (today: The Science of Nature ), a journal whose mandate consisted of it to publish research results from the natural sciences in a generally understandable manner.

Süffert died on April 24, 1945 during the Battle of Berlin , a few days before the capital's surrender on May 2, 1945 and the end of World War II .

research

Fritz Süffert's research was initiated by Richard Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt coined the term intersexuality in 1915 based on genetic experiments and the development of wing patterns in butterflies . He suggested to Süffert that studies by August Weismann from 1875 and 1895 on the change in color patterns in the course of the seasonal dimorphism of Araschnia levana should be checked using more modern methods. Süffert demonstrated that not only the arrangement of the pigments was decisive for the color pattern of the wings, but that differently colored areas of the wings also have differently shaped scales . First with the help of light microscopes , he clarified the hitherto little-known basic features of the formation of scales and their modifications in the course of ontogeny in various types of butterflies and specialized in particular in those scales that produce the strikingly bright shimmering colors in butterflies . Thanks to his previously acquired knowledge of the fine structure of the wing scales, he was able to explain the color effects physically in detail. Previously it was only known that there was no surface pigmentation, but that the colors were caused by various layers of thin leaves. After Süffert had access to the newly developed electron microscopy in the early 1940s , he succeeded in immediately demonstrating the stratification of the chitin lamellae , which could no longer be depicted by light microscopy, and thus finally elucidated the biological production of the Schiller colors .

In addition to these physical studies, Fritz Süffert dealt with comparative-morphological studies of the drawing patterns of butterfly wings. He succeeded in tracing a large number of apparently random patterns even of closely related species back to certain basic principles that - in different combinations and modifications - occur in different species.

Fonts

  • On the morphology and appearance of the butterfly scales. (Preliminary communication.). In: Biological Zentralblatt. Volume 42, 1922, pp. 382-288.
  • The morphology and appearance of the butterfly scales, especially the shimmering colors of the butterflies. In: Journal for Morphology and Ecology of Animals. Volume 1, No. 2, 1924, pp. 171-308, doi: 10.1007 / BF00403572 .
  • Secret laws in the drawing of butterflies. In: Revue suisse de zoologie. Volume 32, Geneva 1925, pp. 107-111.
  • The wing scales of butterflies, their structure and their colors. In: microscopy for nature lovers. Volume 4, No. 1, pp. 1-9 and No. 3, pp. 65-77, 1926, full text .
  • For a comparative analysis of the butterfly drawing. Preliminary communication. In: Biological Zentralblatt. Volume 47, 1927, pp. 385-413.
  • The formation of the imaginal wing cut in the butterfly pupa. In: Journal for Morphology and Ecology of Animals. Volume 14, No. 2, 1929, pp. 338-359.
  • Morphological groups of appearance in the wing markings of the butterflies, especially the cross-tie markings. In: Wilhelm Roux 'Archive for Development Mechanics of Organisms. Volume 120, No. 1.1929, pp. 299-383, doi: 10.1007 / BF02109666 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ August Weismann : Studies on the Descendez Theory. Volume 1: About the seasonal dimorphism of butterflies. Published by Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1875.
  2. ↑ August Weismann: New experiments on the seasonal dimorphism of butterflies. In: Zoological Yearbooks. Department for Systematics, Geography and Biology of Animals. Volume 8, No. 5, 1895, pp. 611-684, full text (PDF).
  3. ↑ E. Children and F. Süffert: About the fine construction of shimmering butterfly scales of the morpho type. In: Biological Zentralblatt. Volume 63, 1943, pp. 268-288.
personal data
SURNAME Süffert, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and lepidopterologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Bischweiler , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1945
Place of death Berlin