Viktor Ivanovich Motschulski

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Viktor Motschulski

Viktor Iwanowitsch Motschulski , Russian Виктор Иванович Мочульский , English transcription Victor Motschulsky, also Victor von Motschoulsky, (born April 11, 1810 in Saint Petersburg ; † June 5, 1871 in Simferopol ) was a Russian colonel and entomologist (insect collector), specialized in insect collector . He was one of the most famous Russian entomologists of the 19th century.

Life

As a soldier he took part in the suppression of the Polish uprising in 1830/31 , in which he was wounded and lost his hearing in his left ear. He traveled widely, partly in his capacity as an officer in the conquest of the Caucasus and Central Asia. He also appears to have been active in military intelligence operations, although his entomological hobby once saved his life in the Caucasus: the hill tribes who captured him thought he was crazy. He tried to switch to the diplomatic service and so use his experience from Central Asia, which did not succeed. Instead, he was later delegated to a committee for railway construction.

In 1836 he traveled to France, the Swiss Alps, Austria and northern Italy, a trip that officially served to restore his health; a delegation to Persia had previously failed due to his health. In 1839/40 he was in the Caucasus, Astrakhan , Kazan and Siberia , in 1847 in Kyrgyzstan , 1850/51 in Germany, Austria, Egypt, India, France, England, Belgium and Dalmatia , in 1853 in the USA (where he was in New Orleans on Yellow fever ), to Panama , Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Copenhagen. So during the Crimean War he was mostly abroad. In 1863 he settled entirely in the Crimea , where he was very ill in his final years. His military career was hampered by his unbridled temper, but he wasn't particularly interested in it either.

Motschulski belonged to the circle of amateur entomologists in Saint Petersburg around Édouard Ménétriés , the curator of the collections of the Zoological Museum . He was dependent on the collaboration of hobby entomologists, as he could not cope with the work on the museum alone and received no support. Motschulski described, for example, the beetles of Leopold von Schrenck's Amur expedition as well as insects from Ceylon , Japan, Alaska and beetles from California. In addition to beetles, he also dealt with other groups of insects , occasionally with millipedes and other arthropods . Ménétries allowed many of the amateur entomologists, including Motschulski, free access to the academy's collections, which they used to loot the collection. Motschulski also had a bad reputation among other entomologists and in other European collections, including stealing beetles.

He was editor of the Etudes entomologiques , in which he published, often in French. Since he got into a dispute with editors of entomological journals who refused to print his contributions further, he tried to deceive them by publishing under his first name Victor. In Germany he was in dispute with Gustav Kraatz in particular , who criticized him.

Many initial descriptions come from Motschulski , which are still classified as valid today, but also many synonyms , as he tended to ignore older works and was not a good systematist . Motschulski had the advantage of collecting in areas that hardly any entomologist had systematically examined before.

He bequeathed his collection to the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists ; today it is mainly housed in the Zoological Museum of Lomonosov University , where it was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century and some of it was classified according to modern standards. The populations outside of its main beetle collection area were partly in poor condition and damaged by bacon beetle larvae.

He left memoirs that are written alive, but not very reliable, since he also uncritically reproduced what was heard as facts. The memoirs are unfinished, there are no entries for the period 1841 to 1851 and after 1856.

Fonts

  • Insectes de la Sibérie reports d'un voyage fait en 1839 et 1840. In: Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. Volume 13, 1845, pp. 1-274.
  • The coleopterological conditions and the beetles of Russia. Gautier, Moscow 1846 ( digitized version )
  • The beetles of Russia. I. Insecta Carabica. Gautier, Moscow 1850.

literature

  • Victor Ivanovich Motschulski: An adventurous life of Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky, described by himself. Compiled by VA Krivokhastky, ed. by Kiril G. Mikhailov. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow / Saint Petersburg 2013.
  • Kiril Mikhailov, Sergei Golovatch: Book Review: An adventurous life of Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky, described by himself. In: ZooKeys . Vol. 371, 2014, pp. 85-90.
  • LH Herman: Motschulsky, Victor Ivanovich. In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 265, 2001, pp. 110-112.
  • Edward Oliver Essig : A History of Entomology. Macmillan, New York 1931.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ cf. Sergei Golovatch: The myriapodological legacy of Victor Ivanovich Motschoulsky. In: ZooKeys . Vol. 426, 2014, pp. 11-16, PMC 4137288 (free full text).
  2. ↑ OL Kryzhanovsky: Eduard Menetries (1801-1861). Website of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (English).
  3. ↑ about T. Victor: Insectes du Caucase et des provinces transcaucasiennes. In: Bulletin de la société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou. Vol. 12, 1839, pp. 44-68.
  4. ↑ Species search: Motschulsky, accepted scientific names. Global Biodiversity Information Facility , accessed March 17, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Motschulski, Viktor Ivanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Мочульский, Виктор Иванович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian colonel and entomologist (insect collector) specializing in beetles
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1871
Place of death Simferopol