Karl Jordan

Heinrich Ernst Karl Jordan (also known as KJ ) ( born December 7, 1861 in Almstedt; † January 12, 1959 in Tring, Hertfordshire, England ) was a German and English entomologist.

Life and work

Jordan was born in 1861 in Almstedt near Hildesheim in the Kingdom of Hanover, the son of a peasant family. After graduating from high school Andreanum in Hildesheim, which he attended from 1876 to 1882, he studied botany and zoology at the Georg- August University in Göttingen. There he joined in 1882 in the connection and later a fraternity Holzminda. After successful graduation in 1886 he went voluntarily to a year of military service, was assistant teacher at the Progymnasium in Hann. Munden and lecturer at the Academy of Forestry Hann. Munden, 1892 accepted a teaching job for mathematics and natural sciences at the Agricultural School in Hildesheim and walked in 1893 at the invitation of Ernst Hartert as a curator at the Walter Rothschild Museum in Tring, where he specialized in beetles, butterflies and fleas and the task was to systematize the collection of insects. Later, he became director of the museum. Jordan has published more than 400 publications. Together with Charles and Walter Rothschild he himself described 2,575 new species, in cooperation with the Rothschilds further 851 Among other things: Arixenia esau, Sphinx maurorum, Battus polydamas antiquus. According to Jordan, the genus Jordanita and several species have been named:

  • Adscita Jordanian
  • Cordylus Jordanian
  • Corypsylla Jordanian
  • Epitedia Jordanian
  • Eudocima Jordanian
  • Leptopelis Jordanian
  • Nearctopsylla Jordanian
  • Opisthodontia Jordanian
  • Pirgula Jordanian
  • Proutiella Jordanian

Together with Charles Rothschild, he discovered the transmission of plague from rats to humans by the rat flea. He also developed a system for the nomenclature of veins and cells in insect wings, the Rothschild Bank system, and described the day Jordan 's organ called sensory organ.

Jordan organized the first International Entomological Congress in 1910. Too, he took over the presidency of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. In both organizations, he later became Honorary President for life. He was a member of the Royal Society in 1932 and from 1929 to 1930 president of the Entomological Society of London.

From 1894 to 1939 he was the first and only editor of the journal Novitates zoologicae. He was also a member of the Viennese Entomological Society since 1931 and a corresponding member of the Society for Scientific Research home to Hamburg.

From 1911 he was a naturalized British citizen. Jordan married in 1891 Minna Bruning, with whom he had two daughters, Hildegard (1891 ) and Ada (1893 ). He died in 1959 in England.

The Karl Jordan Medal

From the Lepidopterist ' Society is since 1973 at irregular intervals the Karl Jordan Medal for lepidopterology ( German: Karl Jordan Medal ) awarded. It is one of the highest honors in the field of entomology.

She was among other things awarded to:

  • John N. Eliot

Writings (selection )

  • The butterfly fauna of Göttingen. Alfeld 1885 dissertation.
  • The butterfly fauna of northwestern Germany, in particular the lepidopterological conditions around Gottingen. Jena 1886.
  • About two entomology concerned questions of nomenclature. In: Seventh International Congress of Entomology. (Vol. 1 ), Berlin, published in May 1939, pp. 583-587. pdf
Moth Noctuidae Zygaenidae Oriental rat flea Henri Stempffer Pierre Viette Elwood Zimmerman Claude Lemaire Hampton Wildman Parker Wilhelm Ebel William Jacob Holland Integrated Authority File
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