Otto Garlepp (20 August 1864,

Cörmigk Cörmigk is a village and a former municipality in the district Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

– 25 November 1959,

Köthen Köthen () is a town in Germany. It is the capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, about north of Halle. Köthen is the location of the main campus and the administrative centre of the regional university, Anhalt Univers ...

), was a German

naturalist 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 along with his brother Gustav Garlepp (24 July 1862 – 25 February 1907) were professional natural history specimen collectors who worked through the firm of

Otto Staudinger Otto Staudinger (2 May 1830 – 13 October 1900) was a German entomologist and a natural history dealer considered one of the largest in the world specialising in the collection and sale of insects to museums, scientific institutions, and indi ...

and

Otto Bang-Haas Otto Bang-Haas (20 January 1882, Dresden – 30 July 1948, Dresden) was a German entomologist and insect dealer. His collection of microlepidoptera is in the National Museum of Denmark and of Coleoptera in the Natural History Museum of Giacomo Dori ...

of Dresden.

Life and work

The Garlepp brothers were born to Lebracht (1832–1911) and Sophie Garlepp née Pölysius in

. Otto Garlepp and Gustav Garlepp are honoured in the butterfly name '' Papilio garleppi'', the bird name '' Compsospiza garleppi'' the mammal name Garlepp's mouse, a subspecies of the

Pampas cat The Pampas cat (''Leopardus colocola'') is a small wild cat native to South America. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List as habitat conversion and destruction may cause the population to decline in the future. It is named aft ...

and another of

Darwin's rhea Darwin's rhea or the lesser rhea (''Rhea pennata'') is a large flightless bird, the smaller of the two extant species of rheas. It is found in the Altiplano and Patagonia in South America. Description The lesser rhea stands at tall. Length ...

amongst many others. They were professional collectors in South America from 1883. At first Gustav worked alone, arriving in Brazil where there were many people of German descent ( "Deutschbrasilianer") to collect insects for Dresden Zoological Museum. Gustav returned to Germany in 1892 following 4 years in Peru, a short trip to Germany and then an expedition to Bolivia. He returned to Bolivia in 1893 with his wife and Otto. He visited Germany for the last time in 1900 when he demonstrated 600 Neotropical bird species at a meeting of the

Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft The German Ornithologists' Society (since 2024 , until then ) was founded in 1850, and is one of the world's oldest existing scientific societies. Its goal is to support and further scientific ornithology in Germany Germany, officially the F ...

in Leipzig. Gustav settled in Paraguay in 1901 but was murdered in 1907 in

Hohenau Hohenau is a municipality in the district of Freyung-Grafenau in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and t ...

. Otto returned to Germany in 1911. He married Elise Ida Schulz in Germany and the couple returned to South America. Through Dr.

Friedrich Ris Friedrich Ris (8 January 1867 – 30 January 1931) was a Swiss physician and entomologist who specialised in Odonata. He was Director of a psychiatric clinic in Rheinau, Switzerland. Ris was born in Glarus, the son of merchant Frederick and ...

in Switzerland, specimens of Lepidoptera are detailed, saying ranslated "Mr. Fassl conveyed me collections that the very well-known tropical collector in lepidopterology circles Otto Garlepp had collected for him in Panama and Costarica in the same years 1912-13. In Panama are called as Lino and bugabita, after a written letter in the area of the Chiriqui volcano. In Costa Rica he collected in the areas the railway line in the valley of the Rio Reventazon and on the volcanoes Irazu and Turrialba. Both areas are well known through the Biologia Centrali Americana". Otto's collecting ceased in 1913 and settled in Köthen working for an insurance business. The Garlepp

zoological specimen A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Exampl ...

s are from

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Many are

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

s. 4,000 Garlepp bird skins were purchased by

Hans von Berlepsch Count Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch (29 July 1850 – 27 February 1915) was a German ornithologist who took an interest in the birds of South America. He also had a cousin named Baron Sittich Hans von Berlepsch (1857-1933) with whom he w ...

who had trained Otto and who described the new species. The specimens are now in

Naturmuseum Senckenberg The Naturmuseum Senckenberg () is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its kind in Germany. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum, which is owned by the Senckenberg Nature Research S ...

and Naturhistorisches Museum Braunschweig. Further specimens are in Naumann Museum, Köthener Schloss
Website
.

Oology Oology (; also oölogy) is a branch of ornithology studying bird eggs, Bird nest, nests and breeding behaviour. The word is derived from the Greek ''oion'', meaning egg. Oology can also refer to the hobby of collecting wild birds' eggs, sometime ...

specimens are held by the Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde in Dresden (from the collection of Maximilian Kuschel), and by

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna () is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museums and non-university research institutions in Austria and an important center of excellence for all matt ...

in Vienna (from the collection of

Josef Seilern Josef Graf von Seilern und Aspang (25 November 1883, Lešná Castle – 18 August 1939, Zlín) was an Austrian-Czech ornithologist and oologist. Seilern was primarily interested in the Neotropical avifauna. His collections are held by Moravské zem ...

(1883–1939)). Mammal specimens are in

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. Butterflies went to the dealership

. These are now widely dispersed as are insects of other orders.

References

Other sources

de.wikipediade.wikipedia
*Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins and Michael Grayson ''The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals'' Johns Hopkins University Press *Gebhardt, L. 1970: Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas. Bd. 2. J. Orn. 111, Sh. 161 f.
Zobodat Inventory of major European bird collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garlepp, Otto German entomologists 19th-century German zoologists 20th-century German zoologists Natural history collectors