Captain Lieutenant Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army. Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Fin ...

Carl Peter Holbøll (1795 – 1856) was a

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

officer, colonial administrator and explorer. Holbøll served as Royal Inspector of Colonies and Whaling in North Greenland (1825–1828), and later as Inspector of South Greenland (1828–1856). During his tenure, he developed an interest in

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and contributed significantly by sending extensive

faunistic Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and ''funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively r ...

collections to

zoologists This is a list of notable zoologists who have published names of new taxa under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. A * Abe – Tokiharu Abe (1911–1996) * Abeille de Perrin, Ab. – Elzéar Abeille de Perrin (1843–1910) * ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Holbøll was a skilled amateur

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

, and authored a treatise on Greenlandic birds.
Ornithologischer Beitrag zur Fauna Grönlands
' von Carl Holböll, übersetzt und mit einem Anhang versehen von J.H. Paulsen. Leipzig, Ernst Fleischer. 1846. In the paper, he described the

arctic redpoll The redpoll (''Acanthis flammea'') is a species of small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Acanthis''. It breeds in the Arctic and north temperate Holarctic tundra and taiga. The redp ...

for the first time, naming it ''Linota hornemanni'' (now known as ''Acanthis flammea hornemanni'' or ''Acanthis hornemanni''), after the

Jens Wilken Hornemann Jens Wilken Hornemann (6 March 1770 – 30 July 1841) was a Danish botanist. Biography He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica ...

. He also wrote a mathematics textbook for Greenlandic schools, which remained in use for about a century. Tragically, after visiting

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Holbøll boarded the brig ''Baldur'', which sank en route to Greenland, resulting in the loss of all on board.

Commemoration of Holbøll in species' names

Professor

Johannes Theodor Reinhardt Johannes Theodor Reinhardt (3 December 1816, in Copenhagen – 23 October 1882, in Frederiksberg) was a Danish zoologist and herpetologist. He was the son of Johannes Christopher Hagemann Reinhardt. Biography He participated as botanist in t ...

described the North American subspecies of the red-necked grebe, naming it "''Podiceps holböllii''". As Holbøll was Danish, under the

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

Article 32.5.2.1, scientific names derived from his name treat the ø/ö as 'o', rather than 'oe' had it been derived from a German name, thus the correct spelling is now ''Podiceps grisegena holbollii''. Hornemann had previously received plant collections from Holbøll and named a new species of rockcress ''Arabis holboellii'', now known as '' Boechera holboellii''. * Krøyer's deep sea angler fish ''Ceratias holbolli'' ( Krøyer, 1845) (

Ceratiidae Ceratiidae, the warty seadevils or caruncled seadevils, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Ceratioidei, the deep-sea anglerfishes, in the anglerfish order Lophiiformes. The warty sea devils are sexually dimorph ...

) *

Amphipod Amphipoda () is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphipod species cur ...

''Phoxocephalus holbolli'' ( Krøyer, 1842) ( Phoxocephalidae) *

''Hippomedon holbolli'' ( Krøyer, 1846) (

Lysianassidae Lysianassidae is a family (biology), family of marine Amphipoda, amphipods, containing the following genera: *''Acontiostoma'' Stebbing, 1888 *''Alibrotus'' Milne-Edwards, 1840 *''Allogaussia'' Schellenberg, 1926 *''Ambasia'' Boeck, 1871 *''Amba ...

) * Marine gastropod ''Colus holbolli'' (Møller, 1842) (

Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Ac ...

) * Marine gastropod ''Dolabrifera holbolli'' Bergh, 1872 (

Aplysiidae Aplysiidae is the only family in the superfamily Aplysioidea, within the clade Anaspidea. These animals are commonly called sea hares because, unlike most sea slugs, they are often quite large, and when they are underwater, their rounded body sha ...

) * Freshwater gastropod ''Lymnaea holbolli'' (Møller, 1842) (

Lymnaeidae Lymnaeidae, common name the pond snails, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small to large air-breathing freshwater snails, Aquatic animal, aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusks, that belong to the clade Hygrophila (cl ...

) *

Flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

'' Boechera holboellii'' ( Hornem.) Á.Löve & D.Löve (

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...

)

References

*Biographical Appendix of ''The Dictionary of American Bird Names'', Revised Edition, by Ernest A. Choate, The Harvard Common Press, 1985.Biographical information indicates Mr. Holboell died at sea. *Henriksen, K. L. (1926) C. P. Holbøll. ''Entomologiske Meddelelser''. 15 (5): 195, with portrait. {{DEFAULTSORT:Holboll, Carl Peter 19th-century Royal Danish Navy officers Danish ornithologists Danish naturalists Danish entomologists Inspectors of Greenland 1795 births 1856 deaths