Karl (or Carl) Wilhelm Verhoeff (25 November 1867 – 6 December 1944) was a German

myriapodologist Myriapodology is the scientific study of myriapods which includes centipedes and millipedes. The field of myriapodology can also cover other myriapods such as pauropods and symphylans. Those who study myriapods are myriapodologists. Societies * ...

and

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 ...

, specialising in myriapods ( millipedes, centipedes, and related species) as well as

woodlice A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood ...

and to a lesser extent

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

Biography

Karl W. Verhoeff was born on 25 November 1867 in Soest in Westphalia, the son of the apothecary Karl M. Verhoeff and his wife Mathilde (born Rocholl). He completed his '' Abitur'' examination in Soest in 1889 and completed his doctoral thesis in zoology in Bonn in 1893. In 1902 he married Marie Kringer, who died in 1937 during surgery. The marriage produced three children, two daughters and a son, the son dying in 1942 on the Russian front. He was briefly employed (1900–1905) at the ' in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, but for the remainder of his long career, he worked privately. Verhoeff undertook a number of collecting trips, including visits to the French Riviera, and Romania and Bulgaria down through Bosnia and into Greece. Some of these trips were financed by the Prussian Academy of Science. He financed himself partly by selling his collections, with Munich and Berlin holding large amounts of his material. Verhoeff was one of the most prolific authors of myriapod taxa in history. He described thousands of taxa, including over a thousand species of millipede alone. Verhoeff ranks among Ralph Vary Chamberlin and

Carl Attems Carl August Graf Attems-Petzenstein (13 October 1868 in Graz, Austria – 19 April 1952 in Vienna) was an Austrian myriapodologist and invertebrate zoologist. He published 138 scientific papers, most of them dealing with his specialist fiel ...

as the three most prolific millipede taxonomists. The 1962 compilation of Gisela Mauermayer records 670 scientific works by Verhoeff, including major contributions to the series '. Contemporary taxonomists did not appreciate his early, groundbreaking work on

Dermaptera Earwigs make up the insect order Dermaptera. With about 2,000 species in 12 families, they are one of the smaller insect orders. Earwigs have characteristic cerci, a pair of forcep-like pincers on their abdomen, and membranous wings folded ...

, mainly due to his obscure expression and scarcity of illustrations and explanations, but his achievements in this group – as well as in Diplopoda and

Chilognatha Chilognatha is a subclass of the class Diplopoda, which includes the vast majority of extant millipedes, about 12,000 species. Taxonomy The classification of Chilognatha presented below is based on Shear, 2011, and Shear & Edgecombe, 2010 (exti ...

– were later recognized. Verhoeff received a number of awards towards the end of his life, including the silver ''

Leibniz Medal The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the German states of Berlin ...

'' of the

Prussian Academy of Science The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berl ...

(1933), the ' of the

August Forel Auguste-Henri Forel (1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. For example, he is conside ...

foundation (1942) and a ' from the University of Bonn on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his thesis (1943). In 1942, shortly before his 75th birthday, he was elected to the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...

. He died in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

from wounds sustained during an air-raid on 6 December 1944. Verhoeff's botanical writing concerned plant-insect interactions.

References

External links

Myriapod publications by Karl Wilhelm Verhoeff
from the International Society of Myriapodology * {{DEFAULTSORT:Verhoeff, Karl Wilhelm 1867 births 1944 deaths People from Soest, Germany People from the Province of Westphalia German civilians killed in World War II 20th-century German zoologists German carcinologists German entomologists Myriapodologists Deaths by airstrike during World War II 19th-century German zoologists

Biography

See also

References

External links