Gaston-François de Witte

Gaston-François de Witte (born June 12, 1897 in Antwerp , † June 1, 1980 in Brussels ) was a Belgian herpetologist . His research focus was the herpetofauna of Central Africa .

Life

De Witte had a keen interest in reptiles as a child and at the age of 15 he met George Albert Boulenger , one of the leading European herpetologists of his time. Boulenger examined fish fossils that Benedictine monks from the Maredsous Abbey near Denée had collected. De Witte attended school in Maredsous and Boulenger became his mentor. After leaving the British Museum of Natural History, Boulenger moved to Brussels and taught de Witte in zoology. After his service in the First World War, de Witte worked at the Museum of the Belgian Congo in 1920 , where he took over the management of the Department of Zoology and Entomology from Jean-Marie Derscheid in 1936 , before moving to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels in 1937, where he became the curator of held the vertebrate department. In 1951 he left the museum service.

De Witte's main interest was the herpetofauna of the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ). During seven major expeditions between 1924 and 1958, he and his local helpers assembled a collection of over 175,000 reptiles and amphibians in several national parks. These have been carefully studied and described in a long line of scientific articles and books. De Witte's first descriptions include 24 reptile species and 60 amphibian species. In 1955, he and Serge Frechkop described the Ruwenzori otter shrew ( Micropotamogale ruwenzorii ).

From November 1924 to September 1925, de Witte undertook his first exploration expedition to the Belgian Congo at his own expense, where he was initially accompanied by Henri Schouteden . The relationship between Schouteden and de Witte deteriorated so much that he decided to continue the journey alone. By land, he and his local porters traveled the 365 km long route to Stanleyville in ten days without seeing a single European. He brought about 25,000 samples, mostly snakes and fish, as well as an ethnographic ensemble and numerous photographs, and gave everything to the Museum of Belgian Congo. De Witte's second expedition took him from August 1930 to September 1931 to the Katanga province . He worked in Baudouinville , Dilolo , Jadotville and on the Luapula , where he amassed a zoological, botanical and ethnographic collection. From August 1933 to July 26, 1935, de Witte explored the Kivu region in Albert National Park . From December 1944 to August 1945 he visited Albert National Park , Garamba National Park , Upemba National Park and Akagera National Park . From November 27, 1946 to April 7, 1947 and from October 17, 1948 to May 4, 1949 he accompanied Ludo van Meel , René Karel Verheyen , William Adam and André Janssens on expeditions to the Upemba National Park, about which the 1953 monograph Reptiles . Exploration du Parc National de l'Upemba. Mission GF de Witte en collaboration with W. Adam, A. Janssens, L. Van Meel and R. Verheyen (1946–1949) was created. From January 10, 1952 to June 12, 1953, de Witte worked in the Albert National Park. From October 20 to December 21, 1958, he accompanied Victor van Straelen, President of the Belgian National Park Institute, on an inspection trip through Albert National Park, Garamba National Park, Upemba National Park and Kagera National Park.

In 1947, in collaboration with Raymond Ferdinand Laurent , de Witte published a revision on the Central African adders under the title Revision d'un groupe de Colubridae africains: Genres Calamelaps, Miodon, Aparallactus et formes affines . In 1965 his work Les caméléons de l'Afrique centrale appeared: (République Démocratique du Congo, République du Rwanda et Royaume du Burundi) Between 1918 and 1980, de Witte published around 90 titles. Most of them were herpetological in nature.

Dedication names

After de Witte are Skinkart Leptosiaphos dewittei and the snake Letheobia wittei named.

Fonts (selection)

• 1930: Résultats scientifiques du voyage aux Indes Orientales Néerlandaises de LL. AA. RR. le Prince et la Princesse Léopold de Belgique, Volume 2. Mémoires du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique: Hors série
• 1934: Batraciens récoltés au Congo Belge par le Dr H. Schouteden et par MG-F. de Witte
• 1940: Instructions pour la récolte et la preparation des reptiles, batraciens et poissons. Musée royal d'histoire naturelle de Belgique.
• 1941: Exploration du Parc National Albert, mission GF de Witte (1933–1935)
• 1941: Batraciens et reptiles
• 1943: Contribution à la systematique des formes dégradées de la famille des Scincidae apparentées au genre Scelotes Fitzinger. Musée royal d'histoire naturelle de Belgique
• 1947: Revision d'un groupe de Colubridae africains. Genres Calamelaps, Miodon, Aparallactus et formes affines, & c. Mémoires du Musée royal d'histoire naturelle de Belgique. (with Raymond Laurent)
• 1948: Faune de Belgique: amphibiens et reptiles
• 1953: Reptiles. Exploration du Parc National de l'Upemba. Mission GF de Witte en collaboration avec W. Adam, A. Janssens, L. Van Meel and R. Verheyen (1946–1949)
• 1962: Genera des serpents du Congo et du Ruanda-Urundi. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale.
• 1964: A new chameleon from the Congo
• 1965: Les Caméléons de l'Afrique Centrale (République démocratique du Congo, République du Rwanda et Royaume du Burundi). Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale
• 1966: Reptiles. Lot 48 de Exploration du Parc national de la Garamb. Institute des parcs nationaux du Congo

literature

• Kraig Adler, John S. Applegarth, Ronald Altig: Contributions to the History of Herpetology. (= Contributions to herpetology. 5). Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1989, ISBN 0-916984-19-2 , p. 122
• Biography Belge d'Outre-Mer: Baron Gaston-François de Witte. Académie Royales des Sciences d'Outre-Mer. T. IX, 2015, pp. 115-118