Max Beier (6 April 1903 in

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district ('' Bezirk'') by area. Geography The town is located ...

– 4 July 1979 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of s ...

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 arach ...

. He studied zoology at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...

, and obtained his doctorate there in 1927. He took up a post at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

in Vienna, in the same year, developing an expertise in

pseudoscorpion Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans sin ...

s. He was appointed Director of the zoological department of the

Vienna Museum The Vienna Museum (german: Wien Museum or ''Museen der Stadt Wien'') is a group of museums in Vienna consisting of the museums of the history of the city. In addition to the main building in Karlsplatz and the Hermesvilla, the group includes num ...

in 1962, and retired in 1968. A list of Beier's 398 scientific papers was published, with an obituary, in ''Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien''. 252 were on pseudoscorpions. He described and named over 1200 pseudoscorpion species of which 1180 were still valid in 2007. He was editor of the ''Orthopterorum Catalogus'' and an updated edition of the volume on insects in the '.

Awards

Beier was awarded the Fabricius Medal in January 1967 of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Angewandte Entomologie (German entomology society). In July 1968 he was granted an honorary doctorate by the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

Personal life

Beier and his wife, Irmgard were married in 1931. His death on 4 July 1979Mahnert says 6 July, but other sources agree on 4 July was unexpected.

Awards

Personal life

References

Further reading