Hermann Dewitz (5 November 1848, Obelischken,

Insterburg Chernyakhovsk (; German language, German: Insterburg) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District. Located at the confluence of the Instruch and Angrap ...

– 15 May 1890

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 ...

who specialized in

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

. He was "Custos" or curator of the Department of Entomology at the

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum () is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major museums in Germany alongside Naturm ...

in Berlin. Dewitz was interested in world butterflies especially those of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

and in 1882 he published ''Beschreibungen von Jugendstadien exotischer Lepidopteren'' (Nova acta Leopoldina Bd. 44, Nr. 2. Halle - E. Blockmann & Sohn), a work on the early stages of Lepidoptera. He also wrote a number of scientific papers on a wide variety of entomological subjects, notably a series of articles on the motion of insects on smooth vertical surfaces.

Publications

*1879
''Mittheilungen des Münchener Entomologischen Vereins''
*1881
''Afrikanische Nachtschmetterlinge''. Nova Acta Acad. Caesar. Leop. Carol. 42:

References

*Gaedecke, R. and Groll, E. K. (Hrsg.)
"Biografien der Entomologen der Welt: Datenbank. Version 4.15"
Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewitz, Hermann German lepidopterists 1848 births 1890 deaths People from Insterburg 19th-century German zoologists German curators