Carl Alexander Clerck (1709 – 22 July 1765) was a Swedish

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

and

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of ...

. Clerck came from a family in the petty

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

and entered the University of Uppsala in 1726. Little is known of his studies; although a contemporary of

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, it is unknown whether he had any contact with him during his time in Uppsala. His limited means forced him to leave university early and enter into government service, later ending up working in the administration of the City of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

His interest in natural history appears to have come at a more mature age, influenced by a lecture of Linnaeus he attended in Stockholm in 1739. In the following years he collected and categorized many

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s, published together with more general observations on the morphology and behaviour of spiders, in his '' Svenska Spindlar'' ("Swedish spiders", 1757, also known by its Latin subtitle, ''Aranei Suecici''). He also started the publication of ''Icones insectorum rariorum'', a series of detailed but uncommented plates illustrating numerous species of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

, left unfinished after the third fascicle (1766) because of Clerck's death. Clerck1757-title-page

Because of the exceptionally thorough treatment of the spider species, the scientific names proposed by Clerck in '' Svenska Spindlar'' (which were adopted by Carl Linnaeus in his ''Systema Naturae'' in 1758 with only minor modifications) had traditionally been recognized by arachnologists as binomial and available, later this was officially recognized in the

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...

.ICZN Code
Art. 3.1 This means that in case of doubt the spelling of a spider name as from Clerck's 1757 work has priority over that proposed by Linnaeus in 1758 (an example is ''Araneus'' instead of ''Aranea''), and that Clerck's spiders were the first animals in modern zoology to have obtained an available scientific name in the Linnean system. The name of the first species to have obtained an available name in the binomial system was ''

Araneus angulatus ''Araneus angulatus'' is a species of orb-weaving spiders found in the Palearctic realm. It resembles the European garden spider, ''Araneus diadematus'', but has distinctive tubercles on its abdomen. The species was first described in '' Aranei ...

''. He eventually became a friend and correspondent of Linnaeus, who appreciated his work greatly, and through his sponsorship was elected a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala in 1756 and of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...

in 1764. Clerck's collection is in the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

External links

Svenska spindlar Online at GDZ

References

*Alb. Tullgren, "Clerck, Carl Alexander", ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'', vol. 8 (1929). *''

Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their co ...

'', 2nd ed., vol. 5 (1906), col
432 f
*F. Pleijel & G. W. Rouse, ''Ceci n´est pas une pipe - names clades and phylogenetic nomenclature'', J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Research, 41 (2003), 162-174. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clerck, Carl Swedish entomologists Swedish arachnologists 18th-century Swedish zoologists 1709 births 1765 deaths Swedish nobility Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences