17 1 004 016 Saaristo Obituary Eng.PM6
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Arthropoda Selecta 17 (12): 416 © ARTHROPODA SELECTA, 2008 Obituary. Íåêðîëîã Michael Ilmari Saaristo (19382008) Michael Ilmari Saaristo was born in Viipuri (Vi- terfly and moth) collecting. These and fishing remained borg, Vyborg), Karelia (now part of Russia), 1 Septem- his incessant hobbies. His scientific studies started with ber 1938, and he died in Turku, 27 April 2008. Most a revision of mayfly genus Caenis, but soon he turned friends and many colleagues knew him as Mikko. into spiders. He said that spiders, as morphologically His father was Toivo Ilmari (nicknamed Ipa) Saaris- very interesting animals, attracted him to start working to and mother Lidia Saaristo. Michael was married to with them. Michael was excellent scientific artist and Eila, and they have daughter Heli and son Juha, and he made the majority of drawings in Pekka T. Lehtin- two grandchildren. Michael graduated from high school ens dissertation (1967), and also drawings for some in Tampere in 1960. He studied in the Department of other papers by Lehtinen. Michael presented his draw- Biology, University of Turku, and received his MSc in ing methods in the 4th International Congress of Arach- 1968 and his PhD in 1977 (thesis: Secondary genital nology, Paris, in 1968 (abstract in the Proceedings, p. organs in the taxonomy of Lepthyphantinae (Araneae, 188). His first arachnological paper was a revision of Linyphiidae)) and received a docentship in 1979. the linyphiid genus Maro (1971). His research and Almost all of Michaels carrier was connected with publishing in spider taxonomy and systematics were the University of Turku. He started as a Teaching most active in the 1970s, and again from the early Assistant and Lecturer in Zoology in 1966. During the 1990s to the present. In the 1970s he published papers last twenty years until retirement in the autumn of on linyphiids and nesticids, and one on Seychelles 2003, he worked first as Curator and later as Head Islands spiders. During the second period of arachnol- Curator of the Zoological Museum, University of Turku. ogy, co-operation with several foreign colleagues was In his museum work, Michael spent much time orga- marked, especially with Andrei V. Tanasevitch. The nizing documentation of samples, and based on his beginning of this second active research time was prob- activity, a marked proportion of spider, as well as of ably connected with the 11th International Congress of insect, collections has been written into databases in Arachnology in Turku, 1989, where Michael met sev- Turku. eral younger colleagues. During this period, Michael Michaels interest in zoology started, as for so many studied Micronetinae (of Linyphiidae) and Oonopidae, others, from bird-watching and insect (especially but- in particular. He also wrote many papers (about twen- Obituary. Íåêðîëîã 5 Fig. 1. Example of the perfect drawing of Michael. This figure was never published. Michael gifted it to his wife. Ðèñ. 1. Îáðàçåö çàìå÷àòåëüíîãî ðèñóíêà Ìèêàýëÿ. Ðèñóíîê ðàíåå íèêîãäà íå ïóáëèêîâàëñÿ. Ìèêàýëü ïîäàðèë åãî ñâîåé æåíå. ty) on Seychellian spiders. In between these two arach- He was especially keen on fishing, both ice-hole nological periods, in the 1980s, though Michael had jigging and rod-fishing. Michael participated in several heavy teaching duties, he also studied entomological fishing competitions, and also at the level of the Finn- themes. Altogether he wrote more than 60 publications ish championship. In 1995 he won a gold medal after on spiders. Michael described about 70 new genera catching the relatively largest fish of the year, a big and 125 new species of spiders. Michael also pub- Baltic herring (ca 0.5 kg). Michael gave often a part of lished papers on ants (Formicidae: 5 papers) and may- his fish catches (e.g., pike-perch and herring) to col- flies (Ephemeroptera: 9 papers). He also produced leagues and foreign visitors. many course manuals. Michael had a nice garden with many flowers, pro- Michael made expeditions to Sri Lanka (1969 and ductive apple trees and different berry bushes, such as 1973), Seychelles (1975 and 1999), Kazakhstan (1990) raspberries, gooseberries and currants. He was always and Rocky Mountains, USA (1974). He has participat- active in his garden. In 2006 and 2007, YM visited ed in arachnological congresses and colloquiums in Michael frequently while working on joint-papers on Paris (1968), Amsterdam (1974), Turku (1989), Aar- Oonopidae. Michael, then weak and using crutches, hus (2000) and Gent (2004). In 2004 he made a re- always involved YM with some garden work, carrying search trip to Beijing. flower-pots, digging out weeds, watering and fertiliz- A.F. Millidge named a linyphiid genus Saaristoa ing flowers, etc. Michael connected his gardening with after Michael Saaristo in 1978. The following species lepidopterology; he had several plants that were very have been named after him: Maro saaristoi Eskov, attractive to butterflies and moths. Many lepidopterists 1980, Theoneta saaristoi Eskov & Marusik, 1991, Ag- visited his garden to collect migrating hawk-moths from yneta saaristoi Tanasevitch, 2000, Microbianor saaris- special odorous tobacco plants. As a lepidopterist toi Logunov, 2000 and Wabasso saaristoi Tanasevitch, Michael was a professional, although he did not pub- 2006. In the present number of Arthropoda Selecta, lish any scientific papers. He was an active collector, there are descriptions of Saaristattus, Berylestis saaris- reared larvae and had light trapping programs with toi, Pelicinus saaristoi and Perlongipalpus saaristoi. several colleagues and with his son. Michael partici- The International Society of Arachnology (ISA) con- pated often in a local competition of back yard bird- ferred an honorary membership on him in 2007. watching in his own garden with very good results, as Michaels hobbies were fishing, creating and tying he saw a few rare bird species. He had feeding places fishing flies, gardening, bird-watching and bird feed- for birds, some near the windows. Tits, sparrows and ing, lepidopterology, philately, and history of Luft- woodpigeons were tame in his garden. Sometimes spar- waffe (German military aviation). rows and tits landed on his shoulders or head. Fig 2. Michael and his another field of study and hobbies: 1) Study of ants, 2) birdwatching, 3) fishing and 4) collecting moths. Ðèñ. 2. Ìèêàýëü è åãî äðóãèå íàïðàâëåíèÿ èññëåäîâàíèé è óâëå÷åíèÿ: 1) ìèðìåêîëîãèÿ, 2) birdwatching, 3) ðûáàëêà è 4) êîëëåêòèðîâàíèå áàáî÷åê. 6 Obituary. Íåêðîëîã Obituary. Íåêðîëîã 7 Fig. 3. Famous Saunakirja and some acknowledgments left by Jörg Wunderlich, Torbjörn Kronestedt and Gustavo Hormiga. Ðèñ. 3. Çíàìåíèòàÿ Saunakirja è çàìå÷àíèÿ îñòàâëåííûå â íåé Jörg Wunderlich, Torbjörn Kronestedt è Gustavo Hormiga. Michael had a respectable and dignified appear- 3) Erigoninae of Northern Holarctic (3). ance; some of his colleagues called him Hemingway. 4) Oonopidae taxonomy (8). In his later years, Michael, especially when having Some of the works fall in two categories and were long, white hair and beard and with kind eyes, looked counted twice (Oonopidae and Seychellian studies, or like Santa-Claus without a mask. Micronetinae and Seychellian studies). About half of As is common in Finland, all arachnologists visit- his works are published with co-authors: A.V. Ta- ing Michael had an opportunity to try his famous sau- nasevitch (10), Yu.M. Marusik (7 & 1 in press), J. na. He kept all records in his Saunakirja (Sauna guest Gerlach (4), P.T. Lehtinen (4), S. Koponen (2), S. Li book) where guests wrote their comments. (2), L. Tu (2), J. Wunderlich (2), K. Yu. Eskov (1), J. During the last three years, Michael was seriously Murphy (1) and some non-arachnologists. Michael de- ill. He was taking strong medicines that did not allow scribed 70 genera (including one in press) and 126 him to work much. Nevertheless, he used all opportuni- species (including one in press). ties to work on spiders. Though the last time he visited By number of publications, Micronetinae was his his working place in Museum was in September 2006, main interest. He described 30 genera and 33 species he continued to work at home. Even when it was hard (more species but less genera were described in Oonop- for him to walk, he finished his large paper in Israeli idae). Michael started to study Micronetinae during his Oonopidae, prepared several presentations for the Bra- student years, and his first paper was a revision of zilian Congress, almost finished his book on spiders of Maro. This and following works on Micronetinae are Seychellian islands, submitted papers on new subfami- fundamental. He provided numerous excellent (from ly of Linyphiidae and new genus of oonopid spiders scientific and aesthetic point of view) figures, dissect- from Crimea (which is still in press). He worked on ed palps and epigynes (by microtome) to understand some Erigonine spiders, but these works were not fin- fine structures and their functions. Because of this in- ished. Sometimes he forgot to take his pills on time, but novation, he was the first who recognized that there are remembered all the fine details about different spiders. no true tubes inside the Micronetinae (and Linyphiidae in general) epigynes, but only folds (forming kinds of Contributions to arachnology tubes). Michael was the first to holomologize parts of the embolic division among micronetines. In the early Contributions by Michael to the Arachnology are 1990s he made impressive plates showing, in multi- very considerable, and these contributions were ac- colours, homologous parts of embolic division in 37 knowledged by electing him as an honorary member of genera. These figures gave much more impression than the ISA. He did not publish many papers, but those he many pages of text. Michael was eager to publish them, did are both fundamental and innovative. but unfortunately he had not found proper journal or Michael worked in different fields, but the diversity enough money.