Gerd Heinrich (zoologist)

Gerd Hermann Heinrich (born November 7, 1896 in Berlin , † December 17, 1984 in Farmington , Maine) was a German zoologist, entomologist and explorer.

Life

Heinrich was the son of the doctor Hermann Heinrich and his wife Margarethe von Tepper-Ferguson Heinrich. He grew up on a large agricultural estate in the former German province of West Prussia (Polish since 1918). Until he was nine years old he was tutored by a private tutor. In 1914 he passed his Abitur at the Askanisches Gymnasium in Berlin as Primus Omnium . At the age of 17, like his father before him, he planned a career in medicine. His interest in natural history made itself felt at an early age. At the age of 15, encouraged by the influence of Richard Heymons , curator of the Entomology Department at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, focused Heinrichs interest to the family of parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae), a large, diverse and in his time taxonomically little researched group of insects . Heinrich's training was interrupted at the beginning of the First World War. He did his military service in the cavalry and then as a pilot in the air force. In 1927 Heinrich led an expedition to the Elbrus and northern Persia (to the provinces of Gilan , Māzandarān and Golestan ). From 1930 to 1932 he undertook expeditions to the island of Celebes (today's Sulawesi ) in Indonesia (Latimodjong Mountains, Menkoka Mountains and Minahasa) and to the Moluccas ( Halmahera and Bacan ). About this he wrote his first major work "The Ichneumoninae of Celebes edited due to the yield of the Celebes expedition G. Heinrich 1930-1932", which was published in 1934. In March 1930 Heinrich succeeded in rediscovering the snoring claw ( Aramidopsis plateni ) on Celebes , which was previously only known from the holotype collected by Carl Constantin Platen in 1885 . In 1931 he discovered other specimens of the drum rail ( Habroptila wallacii ) on Halmahera , also a species that had not been seen for a long time. From 1932 to 1937 Heinrich studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1935 he traveled to the Balkans and the Rhodope Mountains in south-eastern Europe. In 1938 he published the results of his research on the parasitic wasps of Madagascar in his work "Les ichneumonides de Madagascar".

In 1934 the Swedish entomologist René Malaise (1892–1978) organized a zoological expedition to the northeastern parts of Burma. For the first time he used a trap he had invented and built to catch flying insects. Named after him, these malaise traps are widespread and still in use today. Malaise sent his collection to Heinrich for identification and classification. The abundance of bizarre, lush and unknown shapes in this collection was so fascinating that Heinrich himself undertook an expedition to Burma (to the Chin Hills with its highest peak, Nat Ma Taung ) between 1937 and 1938 . Heinrich and Malaises research and collection results were processed in a manuscript for a monograph. When this was completed at the end of 1943, World War II made publication impossible. In order to save the manuscript of the monograph, Heinrich soldered it in metal boxes and secretly buried them in a dry place in the forest. He sent a copy to a friend, the chemist Max Volmer . After the war Heinrich tried to publish the monograph again, but none of the zoological organizations in Europe he contacted had the financial means to publish the work. In 1951, the entomologist Henry Townes (1913-1990), the leading American parasitic wasp expert of his time, encouraged him to emigrate to the United States. Difficult living conditions in the early years of emigration, occasional earnings, a lack of funds for the translation of the manuscript into English and the lack of access to the material buried in Poland delayed the publication of Heinrich's monograph on oriental parasitic wasps for many years. Meanwhile, Heinrich's situation improved and from 1952 to 1953 he took part in a zoological expedition to Mexico. From 1953 to 1963 he accompanied bird and mammal collection expeditions to Yale University , the University of Kansas , the Field Museum of Natural History and other research institutions in Africa. At the same time he continued to collect parasitic wasps. From 1953 to 1955 he visited Angola for the first time (especially the north-eastern and south-eastern provinces on Mount Moco and Mount Soke). He undertook a second Angola excursion between 1957 and 1958, where he toured the northern and north-western provinces. From 1961 to 1963 he participated in expeditions to Tanzania ( Usambara Mountains , Uluguru Mountains, Livingstone Mountains , Rungwe , Ufipa Plateau), to Northern Rhodesia and South Africa. From 1961 to 1962 he published the seven-volume work "Synopsis of Nearctic Ichneumoninae Stenopneusticae" with the support of the Canadian Department of Agriculture. In 1965 Heinrich contacted the Polish Academy of Sciences to get access to the material buried in Poland. The metal boxes were found with mine detectors and added to the academy's collection. Heinrich was assured to be allowed to work with the desired material for the time being.

The material that Heinrich gathered during his African expeditions was described in the text "Synopsis and Reclassification of the Ichneumoninae of Africa, south of the Sahara". Thanks to a financial grant from the National Science Foundation , the work was published by Farming College Press between 1967 and 1968. In preparation for this monograph, Heinrich made a tour of Europe, where he visited all the major European museums to examine the African parasitic wasp collections. During this trip he stayed in Stockholm, where he met entomologists Eric Kjellander and Rene Malaise. It was agreed to publish a new version of the monograph “Burmesische Ichneumoninae”, the first eight parts being published between 1965 and 1970 in the series “Entomologisk Tidskrift”. The last four parts were published by the Polish Academy of Sciences between 1974 and 1980.

In 1977 Heinrich published his last major monograph entitled "Ichneumoninae of Florida and neighboring states". It includes descriptions of 50 genera and 135 species, 47 of which are first scientific descriptions . Heinrich described a total of 1479 species and subspecies that originate from the Nearctic , Africa, Madagascar , the Oriental region and the Palearctic. Heinrich also published travel reports on his expeditions to Celebes ("The Snore Bird - Two Years of Rallen Catching and Jungle Research", 1932), to Persia ("On Panthersearch through Persia", 1933) and to Burma ("In Burma's mountain forests. Research trip in British- Behind India ”, 1940) as well as three publications on European mammals, three publications on the biology of the bird world in Angola and a joint work with Sidney Dillon Ripley on the systematics of Angola's birds.

Dedication names

In addition to numerous parasitic wasp taxa, including Ichneumon heinrichi , Aphanistes heinrichi and Smicroplectrus heinrichi , Heinrich is honored in several bird names, including the white-headed chalk ( Cossypha heinrichi ), the Sulawesid thrush ( Geomalia heinrichi ) and the Celebes short-winged frog ( Heinrichia callyna ). The mountain piglet squirrel ( Hyosciurus heinrichi ) and the frog species Limnonectis heinrichi are also named after him.

literature

• Nigel J. Collar: Pioneer of Asian Ornithology. In: BirdingASIA. 11, 2009, pp. 33-40.
• Alexander Tereshkin: Gerd Hermann Heinrich 1896–1984 (PDF; 309 kB)
• Lutz Hagestedt (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon - the 20th Century , Volume 16 Heinemann – Hermann, Berlin, de Gruyter 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-023162-5 , column 32f. On-line

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerd Heinrich in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gerd Hermann Heinrich - Obituary . In: The Lewiston Daily Sun , December 18, 1984. 
• Hildegarde "Hilda" M. Heinrich Obituary (obituary for Heinrich's wife Hildegard with numerous details from Gerd Heinrich's life)

supporting documents

1. ^ GHH Tate , R. Archbold : Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 1. A new genus and species of squirrel from Celebes. American Museum Novitates 801, May 17, 1935, pp. 1-6. ( Full text )