Amnon Freidberg ( he, אמנון פרידברג; 18 September 1945 – 10 October 2020) was an Israeli

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 arach ...

. In his career he described 257 new insect taxa, predominantly flies.

Biography

Freidberg was born in 1945 in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...

. He studied biology in

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

and worked with Professor

Jehoshua Kugler Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

in taxonomic and faunistic research. In 1971 he completed his MSc thesis on fruit flies of Israel (

Tephritidae The Tephritidae are one of two fly families referred to as fruit flies, the other family being the Drosophilidae. The family Tephritidae does not include the biological model organisms of the genus ''Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a ge ...

) and in 1978 his PhD dissertation on the reproductive behavior and reproductive isolation in fruit‑flies. Freidberg was chief editor of the ''Israel Journal of Entomology'' for nearly two decades (1982–1986, 1990–1998, 2005–2012). He was curator of the entomological collection of Tel Aviv University until his retirement in 2013. On October 10, 2020, Freidberg died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Israel The COVID-19 pandemic in Israel also known as the coronavirus pandemic in Israel ( he, מגפת הקורונה בישראל) is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavi ...

Taxa named in his honor

References

1945 births 2020 deaths Israeli entomologists Tel Aviv University alumni Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel Scientists from Haifa {{Israel-scientist-stub