Leopold Melichar (5 December 1856 – 2 September 1924) was a Moravian entomologist and physician who specialized in the taxonomy of the

leafhoppers Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus ''Cicadella''. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind ...

. Melichar was born in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, Moravia and studied medicine in Prague before beginning practice in Vienna from 1888. He became an official in the ministry of health and in his spare time he took an interest in insects. Through the influence of Ladislav Duda he began to specialize in the leafhoppers, examining the collections of

Uzel Uzel (; or Uzel-près-l'Oust) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is about west-northwest of Rennes and north-northwest of Loudéac. The old school, in the centre of Uzel, was the scene of to ...

from Sri Lanka. Melichar returned to live in Brno in 1912 and during World War I he headed the local Red Cross Hospital. Melichar also collected in North Africa, Spain and around the Mediterranean and his collections were bequeathed to the Moravian Museum. Most of the taxa described by Melichar were based on external morphology and did not involve examination of the genitalia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melichar, Leopold Entomologists Scientists from Bohemia Czechoslovak scientists 1856 births 1924 deaths Place of death missing Scientists from Austria-Hungary