Ludwig Ganglbauer

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Ludwig Ganglbauer

Ludwig Ganglbauer (born October 1, 1856 in Vienna ; † June 5, 1912 in Rekawinkel ) was an Austrian coleopterologist .

Life

Ludwig Ganglbauer's father (Franz, 1823–1874) was a senior finance officer (peasant descent from the Upper Austrian Schiedlberg ; his uncle Cölestin Josef Ganglbauer was abbot in nearby Kremsmünster and from 1881 cardinal in Vienna). Ludwig was able to pursue his early biological interests during his studies (1874–80 University of Vienna, without a doctorate). In 1878 he passed the teaching examination and started teaching at the Academic Gymnasium, which he had previously attended. Two years later he became an assistant at the kk Hof-Naturalienkabinett at Ludwig Redtenbacher's († 1876), succeeding curator Friedrich Moritz Brauer . In 1883 he married Eugenie Starke, the marriage resulted in a son. In 1893 he was custodian of the zoological collection of the now (1889) completed Natural History Imperial and Royal Court Museum, whose beetle collection he through collecting trips a. a. (especially for the Palearctic ) brought world renown.

In 1906 he finally became head of the Zoological Collection - a position which, as in so many similar cases, had fatal consequences: a devoted naturalist is overwhelmed by official positions and administrative obligations. Ganglbauer showed disturbances in thinking and memory gaps as a result of the constant overload. In 1910 he fell ill with colon cancer and died at the age of 55 in Rekawinkel, where he had been "fleeing" for a long time from the museum in order to complete his life's work, the "Beetles of Central Europe", in peace, possibly as a pensioner. He is buried in Dürrwien . In 1908 he was still elected to the government council and a corresponding member of the kk Academy of Sciences in Vienna. His successor as person responsible for the beetle collection in the museum was his colleague Karl Holdhaus (1883–1975).

power

Edmund Reitter recognized Ganglbauer's outstanding abilities in the field of coleopterology (beetle science) early on and made him a friend for life. Ganglbauer initially envisioned a beetle fauna in Austria (following L. Redtenbacher's "Coleoptera austriaca" ribbon), but soon saw that such a beetle fauna would last for years thanks to Reitter's identification tables (which eventually culminated in his "Fauna germanica: Coleoptera") addition was superfluous. This is how the plan for the work "The Beetles of Central Europe" came about, which was less about species systematics and more about higher taxa and their natural relationship, as emerged from a real "family tree" required by Darwin and especially Haeckel. In this area of phylogenetics , Ganglbauer achieved excellent results - it was only sometimes later that it was found that he had overestimated the importance of a complex of characteristics such as wing veins. For example, he met the fundamental division of the beetles in Ade- and Polyphaga (1903). Always interested in the bionomy (ecology) of his beetles, he often regretted not being able to deal with their life expressions and conditions in much greater detail.

Ganglbauer was characterized by his quick familiarization with the taxonomy of the group to be treated, so that he published almost two hundred individual papers - as "byproducts" of his research - most of them in the "Wiener Entomologische", which he founded with companions in 1881 Newspaper". But when he had to realize that he would not be able to achieve the set goal due to the abundance of substances (approx. 8000 species live in Central Europe), he was happy to hand over the processing of individual taxa to trustworthy colleagues. Nevertheless, he suffered from having to let go of his “Central European Beetles” by far unfinished.

Main work

The beetles of Central Europe. - The beetles of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Germany, Switzerland and the French and Italian Alps. 1892-1904. Vienna (published by Carl Gerolds Sohn) .- The work was laid out in 6 or 7 volumes. The world war made it impossible to continue.

  • I. Volume. Family series Caraboidea, 557 pages, 55 text figures. 1892.
  • II. Volume. Family series Staphylinoiäea, 1st part, 880 pages, 38 text figures. 1895.- Along with the Cerambycidae, the staphylinoids were Ganglbauer's "favorite" study objects.
  • III. Tape. Family series Staphylinoidea, part 2, and family series Clavicornia. 1046 pages, 46 text figures. 1899.
  • IV. Volume, first half. Dermestidae, Byrrhidae, Nosodendridae, Georyssidae, Dryopidae, Heteroceridae, Hydrophilidae. 286 pages, 12 text figures. 1904.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Ganglbauer, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian coleopterologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1912
Place of death Rekawinkel