Juan Gundlach

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Juan Gundlach

Juan Gundlach (bourgeois Johannes Christopher Gundlach; born July 17, 1810 in Marburg (Lahn) , Hesse ; † March 17, 1896 in Havana , Cuba ) was a Cuban zoologist of German descent. His main research interests were ornithology and entomology. But he also wrote about mammals, mollusks, reptiles and amphibians.

Live and act

Juan Gundlach was the son of a university professor of physics and mathematics. He lost his smell after an accidental blow with a shotgun. Due to this fact he was able to work as a taxidermist even with cadavers in an advanced state of decomposition.

In 1837 Gundlach finished his scientific studies and obtained his doctorate with the dissertation “De pennis” (a natural history treatise on the bird's feather). In November 1838 he accepted the invitation of a friend from college in the Dutch Guiana ( Suriname ) to work as an animal collector and researcher in South America. In 1839, however, he settled in Cuba instead and established a base of operations in Cárdenas . In 1852 Gundlach moved to Havana, where he made the acquaintance of the Cuban naturalist Felipe Poey . Together they went on excursions to eastern Cuba, where Gundlach collected between 1856 and 1859. During one of these expeditions he discovered the Cuban Nightshaw ( Cricosaura typica ), which was scientifically described by himself and Wilhelm Peters in 1863 . One of Gundlach's ornithological discoveries in 1844 was the bee elf ( Mellisuga helenae ), the smallest species of hummingbird in the world.

In 1864 Gundlach founded the first Cuban natural history museum in Havana, which is now administered by La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro. During the Cuban uprising against Spain between 1868 and 1878, Gundlach had to interrupt his field work in Cuba. In 1873 he began his research activities in Puerto Rico and in 1878 he presented the first comprehensive list of the Puerto Rican avifauna with 153 species. He also carried out studies on metamorphosis in Antilles whistling frogs. In 1884 he continued his collecting activity in eastern Cuba. In 1887, at the age of 76, he made his last excursion.

Dedication names

After Gundlach among others are Gundlachsperber ( Accipiter gundlachi ), the Antilles Eight Schwalbe ( Chordeiles gundlachii ) which Gundlachspottdrossel ( mime gundlachii ), the Gundlachvireo ( Vireo gundlachii ), the Cuban crab Bussard ( Buteogallus gundlachii ), the toad Peltophryne gundlachi , the Antillenpfeiffrosch Eleutherodactylus gundlachi , the long-tailed hatia Mysateles gundlachi , the knight butterfly Parides gundlachianus and the lobster Palinurellus gundlachi . There are also numerous plant taxa that the German botanist Ignaz Urban named after Gundlach.

First descriptions by Gundlach

Birds

  • Cuba Flycatcher ( Myiarchus sagrae ) ( Gundlach , 1852)
  • Gundlach pigeon ( Geotrygon caniceps ) ( Gundlach , 1852)
  • Cuban Warbler ( Dendroica pityophila ) ( Gundlach , 1855)
  • Cuban mosquito catcher ( Polioptila lembeyei ) ( Gundlach , 1858)
  • Wood Warbler ( Teretistris fornsi ) ( Gundlach , 1858)
  • Subspecies of the golden woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus ) Gundlach , 1858
  • Subspecies of the palm crow ( Corvus palmarum minutus ) ( Gundlach , 1852) (sometimes considered as a separate species Corvus minutus )

Mammals

Reptiles

Amphibians

insects

Molluscs

Works (selection)

  • Description of Five new Species of Birds and other Ornithological Notes of Cuban Species . In: Boston journal of natural history . tape 6 , 1853, pp. 313-319 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Notes on some Cuban Birds, with Description of three New Species . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . tape 6 , 1858, pp. 267-275 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Additions and corrections to the contributions to Cuba's ornithology . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 9 , 1861, p. 401-416 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Catalogo de las aves cubanas, 1873
  • Catálogo de los reptiles cubanos, 1875
  • Contribucion á la ornitologia cubana, 1876
  • Contribucion a la mamalogia cubana, 1877
  • Contribucíon a la erpetología cubana, 1880
  • Apuntes para la fauna Puerto-Riqueña, 1881
  • Contribución a la entomología cubana, (Tomo I). Lepidópteros., 1881
  • Contribución a la entomología cubana, (Tomo II). Himenópteros., 1886
  • Contribución a la entomología cubana, (Tomo III). Neurópteros, coleópteros, ortópteros…, 1891
  • Notes on some species of birds of the Island of Cuba . In: The Auk . tape 8 , no. 2 , 1891, p. 187–191 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 497 kB ]).
  • Ornitología cubana ó Catálogo descriptivo de todas las especies de aves tanto indígenas como de paso anual o accidental observadas en 53 años, 1893

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Juan Gundlach  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of the plant taxa named after Gundlach at the IPNI
personal data
SURNAME Gundlach, Juan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gundlach, Johannes Christopher; Gundlach, Johann Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Cuban zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg (Lahn) , Hesse
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1896
Place of death Havana