Heinrich Kutter

Heinrich Kutter (born September 22, 1896 in Vinelz , † July 23, 1990 in Egg ) was a Swiss myrmecologist and pharmacist .

Life

Kutter was the son of Hermann and Lydia Kutter, nee Rohner. His father, who was pastor at Neumünster in Zurich , belonged to the circle of friends of the art historian Carl Brun . Heinrich Kutter's interest in ant research was aroused by Brun's son Rudolf . In 1912 Kutter wrote his first scientific treatise on the establishment of a colony for the red wood ant , which was published in 1913 and paved the way for him to contact Auguste Forel . In the summer of 1914 Kutter accompanied Forel, who was paralyzed on his right side by a stroke, on his collective excursions in northern Italy and became one of his most important students.

Heinrich Kutter completed a pharmacy degree at the ETH Zurich , where he met his future wife Luise Trüb. In 1934 he received his doctorate under the direction of Otto Schneider-Orelli with a doctoral thesis on pests of pea crops in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley. From 1928 Kutter and his wife worked as a couple pharmacists in Flawil . In 1959 they moved to Männedorf and in 1971 to Egg. His wife died in 1979.

Kutter published over 100 works, including several books, such as the work Gehe zu der Ant , published in 1920 . In 1948, on the 100th birthday of Auguste Forel, he published the book Die Welt der Anmeisen , a German translation of selected chapters of Forel's five-volume work. In 1950, Kutter's most important first description of the ant species Teleutomyrmex schneideri (now a synonym for Tetramorium inquilinum ), which parasitizes the back of the queens of the common turf ant ( Tetramorium caespitum ), appeared. The biologist Edward O. Wilson later referred to this form of parasitism as social parasitism . Further cutter described the types Leptothorax nadigi (1925), Forelophilus overbecki (1931), Lepisiota emmelii (1932), Tetramorium brevidentatum (1932), Doronomyrmex pacis (1945), Leptanilla escheri (1948), Epimyrma stumperi (1950), Formica Nafi ( 1957), Myrmica bibikoffi (1963), Doronomyrmex goesswaldi (1967), Formica bruni (1967), Formica goesswaldi (1967), Leptothorax buschingeri (1967), Leptothorax arcanus (1973), Myrmica winterae (1973), Calyptomyrmex friederikae (1976) , Simopone annettae (1976), Hylomyrma reginae (1977) and Simopone matthiasi (1977).

Honors and Dedication Names

In 1962 Kutter received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne and in 1963 from the University of Bern . In 1972 he became an honorary member of the Natural Research Society in Zurich (NGZH). The species Camponotus kutteri Forel, 1915, Camponotus kutterianus Baroni Urbani, 1972, Chalepoxenus kutteri Cagniant, 1973, Crematogaster kutteri Viehmeyer, 1924, Doronomyrmex kutteri (Buschinger, 1966) and Tetramorium kutteri Tinaut, 1990 are named after Kutter.

literature

• Willi Sauter : On the 70th birthday of Dr. Heinrich Kutter Communications of the Swiss Entomological Society = Bulletin de la Société Entomologique Suisse = Journal of the Swiss Entomological Society, Volume 39 (Issues 3 and 4), 1967, pp. 263–264
• Rolf Meier: Nekrolog: Heinrich Kutter (1896-1990). Quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society in Zurich, 135/4, 1990, pp. 266–267
• Cesare Baroni Urbani, Daniel Cherix: In memoriam Heinrich Kutter (1896–1990). Insectes Sociaux 38, 1991, pp. 217-218 (English)