Paul Denso

Oskar Max Friedrich Paul Denso (born March 15, 1873 in Dresden , † November 24, 1944 in Hainsberg near Dresden) was a German lepidopterist .

Life

After visiting the Dresden Kreuzschule Paul Denso studied in Jena and Rostock Technology and graduated as Dr. phil. because there is a Dr.-Ing. at that time did not exist. Even during his studies he had a strong interest in geology, botany and zoology, which his father is said to have aroused in him. After completing his studies, he went back to Dresden and had contact with the lepidopterists there. On March 19, 1899, he married Franziska Pauline Elsbeth Klahre, the adopted daughter of Eduard Schnorr von Carolsfeld, in Dresden .

In 1901, after his parents' business had collapsed, he went to Lancy near Geneva and worked as a private lecturer. From there he made many trips to the Alps and Corsica, during which many photos of butterflies were taken. In 1910 he got a job at the Tessenow School in the garden city of Hellerau in Dresden. During his time in Hellerau, he bred many hybrids of hawks , which he already dealt with in Geneva. He wrote the appendix about swarming hybrids for Adalbert Seitz ' Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer , the second volume of the book series Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde , and temporarily took over the editing of the entomological journal Iris from Dresden.

After the First World War he worked for the Sócietè de Graphites Sahanavo as a senior engineer in Madagascar . He lived in a bungalow on the mountain slope and already had electric light with which he attracted butterflies at night ( light trap ). During this time he was able to clarify the biology of the hawk species Xanthopan morganii praedicta . It was predicted by Charles Darwin after seeing the 30 cm long lip spurs of the Angraecum sesquipedale orchid . Denso found that the hawkmoth is not the only pollinator, but that a nectar bird with claws and beak also gains access to the nectar.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, his research ended and all photos, records and collections were lost during his French internment in the Moramanga camp . Some of the butterflies have been preserved because they were on consignment from Staudinger & Bang-Haas in Dresden. His son-in-law Friedrich Schnack had taken some of his notes with him to Munich. Paul Denso was transferred from the camp in Madagascar to Marseille and then to the Pyrenees , where he was liberated after the German occupation of southern France. He found accommodation in Hainsberg with his brother William and died unexpectedly in 1944 of a heart condition.

His preserved hybrid collection and the Malagasy butterflies by Staudinger & Bang-Haas are now in the Museum für Tierkunde Dresden .

Others

The enthusiast Nephele densoi Keferstein , 1870 is named after his father Albrecht Eugen Friedrich Denso, who was the Dutch consul in Karachi , India .

literature

• Obituary by Franz Eichler, Wittenberg: Paul Denso for memory , entomological treatises. Museum für Tierkunde, Volume 36, Dresden, 1967–1970.