Johann Wilhelm Meigen
Johann Wilhelm Meigen ( May 3, 1764 in Solingen, † July 11, 1845 in Stolberg ( Rhineland) ) was a German entomologist.
Life and work
Meigen was born the fifth of eight children, his parents operated with modest means a grocer in Solingen. He was interested at a young age for the nature and began collecting butterflies at the age of ten years. He received a first training in mathematics and especially in French.
In 1784 he went to Aachen to the dealer Pelzer in teaching. A cousin of his, the wool merchant Johann Matthias Baum Hauer (1759-1818), was a passionate entomologist and had a sizable collection, especially of butterflies. Soon the young Meigen helped him in the care of his collection, which included about 1,200 pieces.
He then began to proceed with its collection of scientific and he managed to get some Entomologiewerke, which allowed him to determine the species. His first scientific observations particularly in the wings of flies and placed so that the defined Linnaeus genera in question, without knowing that Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856) in Britain and Louis Jurine (1749-1819) in Geneva to similar conclusions arrived. He then gave the work of Johan Christian Fabricius ( 1745-1808 ). In order to study the wings of Diptera better, he acquired at an exhibition in Leiden a microscope at 20x magnification.
In the fall of 1786, the organist of Solingen died. This office was Meigen offered, as well as the teaching of the French language belonged. He accepted the position, which among other benefits also allowed to stay close to his family. In 1792, he began with character studies, while still taught in schools around the Aachen French. This Meigen taught primarily the children of the wealthy copper masters in Stolberg, where he worked from 1796 until his death. Private lessons he gave in the subjects of drawing, geography, history and music ( piano ).
In 1801 he met Bernard Germain Etienne Médard de La Ville- sur- Illon, comte de La Cepede ( 1756-1825 ), who had come to visit the breweries to Stolberg. Meigen showed him his Zweiflüglerzeichnungen. In 1802 he was invited to visit to Aachen, where they stayed as spa guests by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger ( 1775-1813 ) and Johann Centurius of Hoffmannsegg ( 1766-1849 ).
It is thanks to Illiger, were that the first works of Meigen appear. In the same year Fabricius discovered when visiting Paris Meigens work and asked him for a meeting, which will take place in Stolberg. Fabricius threw Meigen before applying any classification method, which is based only on a certain body part, but changed after each of the requirements.
The year 1808 was difficult because of the drastically declining number of French students. Meigen received on a post as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce Stolberg. In 1812 he was hired by the French government in the Aachen administration. Meigen created topographic maps for the Département de la Roer, the mayor Stolberg, an overview map and eleven district maps for the district of Cologne.
The time from 1816 to 1817 was very difficult for Meigen, because he had big problems after the loss of most educational facilities, to support his family, which included seven children.
He was then commissioned to publish a new edition of its publication in 1804. For this he received money from the kings of Prussia, Denmark and Württemberg and the Emperor of Austria. You trusted him the collections of the museums of Vienna and Berlin to (where the collection is stored Hoffmannseggs ), as well as by Peter Simon Pallas ( 1741-1811 ).
In 1818 he published the first volume of an insect fauna: Systematic description of the known European two-winged insects, the six others followed were the last appeared in 1838.
Tree Hauer's widow commissioned him in 1818 to determine the collection of at least 50,000 pieces that came from Germany, France, the Pyrenees, the Alps and northern Italy. After this work, the collection of 1,100 Dutch guilders to the museums of suffering and of Liege was sold.
In 1823 he was invited by Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann ( 1770-1840 ) to Hamburg in order to bring order to the collection of Fabricius. During his subsequent visit to Sweden and Denmark created more than 600 nature drawings.
1822/23 published a series of astronomical Meigen cards, such as " The starry heavens or description of all the visible constellations in Europe ", a celestial atlas of 16 plates and an auxiliary book. Shortly before his death, he was awarded 3rd May 1845 was for his work on the Diptera honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Friedrich- Wilhelm University of Bonn.