The Dipterist C.R.W. Wiedemann (1770-1840). His life, work and collections ADRIAN C. PONT Steenstrupia Pont, A.C.: The dipterist C.R. W. Wiedemann (1770-1840). His life, work and collections. - Steen- 4, strupia 21: 125-154. Copenhagen, Denmark, December 1995. ISSN 0375-2909. The German entomologist and dipterist C.R.W. Wiedemann (1770-1840) published the first mono- graphs on "exotic" (non-European) Diptera_ Biographical information is presented in order to provide the scientific and social background for these studies, and the relationship between Wiede- mann and contemporary entomologists is discussed, especially his interaction with B.W. Wester- mann, J.W. Meigen, Count J.C.von Hoffinansegg, and P.S. Pallas. Annotated lists are given of the collectors who supplied the material that Wiedemann studied and of the localities from which his new species were described. Adrian C. Pont, Hope Entomological Collections, The University Museum, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK. CONTENTS (1897: 381), Hirsch (1934: 927), Grabe (1949: 1- 73), Schipperges (1967: 146-147), Haferlach 1. Introduction 125 (1987: 382-385), and on the posthumously- 2. Biographical background 126 3. Wiedemann the Dipterist 133 published autobiographical reminiscences of his 4. Wiedemann and Meigen 134 widow (L. Wiedemann 1929). In addition, this 5. Wiedemann and Westermann 137 paper provides information on Wiedemann's in- 6. Wiedemann and Hoffmansegg 139 7. Wiedemann and Pallas 140 teractions with other notable entomologists of the 8. Questions of authorship 141 day (with separate sections on Meigen, Wester- 9. Wiedemann's material (notes on collectors mann, Hoffmansegg and Pallas), and enumerates and collections) 143 the various collectors who supplied him with 10. Localities 148 11. References 152 material and the localities from which he de- scribed his new species. 1. INTRODUCTION Acknowledgements I thank the following libraries for access to litera- This is the first in a short series of papers that will ture or for providing copies of the primary sources deal with the life and achievements of C.R.W. quoted here: Hope Entomological Library and Wiedemann. Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiede- Archive, Oxford, UK; Natural History Museum, mann (or, when latinised, Christianus Rudolphus London, UK; Wellcome Institute for the History Guilielmus) was a man of prodigious talents and of Medicine, London, UK; University of Gottin- accomplishments. He occupied a seminal posi- gen, Germany; Institute for the History of Medi- tion in the development of "exotic" Dipterology cine and Pharmacy, University of Kiel, Germany. (i.e. of non-European Dipterology) in the early In addition, I thank the following colleagues for decades of the 19th century, yet no biographical their assistance in providing information or for information is available in the entomological lit- commenting on earlier drafts of this paper: Dr erature apart from the sparse accounts given by R. Contreras-Lichtenberg (Vienna, Austria), Dr Henriksen (1925: 164-165) and, based on this, by N.L. Evenhuis (Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA), Dr P.J. Papavero (1971: 111-113). The following pages van Helsdingen (Leiden, The Netherlands), Dr are based on Nitzsch (1841: 1-15), Winckel J.W. Ismay (Oxford, UK), Dr I.M. Kerzhner (St Steenstrupia 21: 125-154. 126 A.C. PONT Petersburg, Russia), Dr V. Michelsen (Copenha- ment in his life, and he then undertook a 14-month gen, Denmark), Dr H. Muggelberg (Berlin, Ger- journey to southern Britain to further his studies in many), Dr H. Schumann (Berlin, Germany), Dr mineralogy. Whilst in London he learned that he F.C. Thompson (Washington DC, USA), and had been appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Prof. Dr. W. Tobias (Frankfurt, Germany). Mr and Theatre of Anatomy and Surgery at Brunswick's Mrs Harry Ferrar (Oxford) kindly assisted with Collegium Carolinum. His inaugural lecture in the more obscure passages from Luise October 1794 was entitled Uber das fehlende Wiedemann's autobiography. Most of the work Brustbein, and discussed a condition that he had was done under Service Contract 433K43100143 observed in a boy at Llandeilo, Wales. with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wash- In 1795 Wiedemann began courting Luise Mi- ington DC, USA, and I am grateful to Dr F.C. chaelis'. She was the daughter of Johann David Thompson for arranging this support. Michaelis (1717-1791), the eminent Orientalist of Gottingen University. Her older sister Caro- line, widowed whilst still young, married first the literary critic and historian A.W. Schlegel and 2. BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND' then the philosopher F.W.J. von Schelling. She Wiedemann was born in Braunschweig [Bruns- wick] on 7 November 1770, and died at Kiel 2 Luise Michaelis was born in GOttingen on 12 September 1770 and died in Kiel on 30 June 1846. Her autobiographical on 31 December 1840. His father, Conrad Eber- reminiscences were written in the early 1840s, after the death hard Wiedemann (1722-1804), was an art dealer of Wiedemann. They contain much interesting information and his mother, Dorothea Friederike née Raspe on her life and the many eminent people with whom she came into contact. She does not say a great deal about (1741-1804), was the daughter of an accountant Wiedemann, however: whilst a few details emerge about his in the Royal mining service and a lady of very professional activities nothing is said about entomology or refined tastes. After a school education in Bruns- entomologists. The editor Steinberger refers to an wick, Wiedemann matriculated in 1790 in the unpublished Life of Wiedemann by his grandson, and Luise herself refers to a Leben. Perhaps these are references to a Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jena, single document, in which case Luise may well have been where he was a contemporary of Friedrich von sparing in her own account of her husband because so much Hardenberg (the poet Novalis). Whilst at univer- detail was available in this other source. Life was hard in those days, and she writes much about illnesses and sity, he travelled in Saxony and Bohemia. He bereavements. But she also writes with great warmth and obtained his doctor's degree in 1792 with a thesis affection about her many good friends: She was particularly entitled Dissertatio inauguralis sistens vitia ge- devoted to her brother-in-law Schelling who, more than nus humanum hodiernum debilitantia. Natural thirty years after the death of his wife Caroline (Luise' s older sister), was still warmly attached to the Michaelis family: history interests were already a prominent ele- "Schelling has remained a devoted and loyal friend right up to the present ... May God grant me still the joy of embracing In this biographical section, unreferenced quotations are once more that dear man whom I love so much, and respect from L. Wiedernann (1929), translated by myself. so much as a person." Fig. 1. No portrait of Wiedemann is known to exist, so this example of his hand-writing must serve as an illustration instead. The letter, now in the Hope Entomological Archive in the Oxford University Museum, is to Professor J.O. Westwood. Transcription: "6. Aussereuropaische Zweifitigler 1828 Vol° I with seven lithographic plates or tables. The second and last vol' is finished and to appear end of the present year. This moment I am preparing a Monography of the Midas Genus which will be published in the Acta Academiae Caesareo- Leopoldinae with coloured engravings of every species. I have in my own collection 8 species of Midas, but I have seen and described 23 species, two of which I do not know the habitation of, they were sent me from the Vienna and the Leyden Museums. If you have any Diptera from New Holland I would be very much obliged to you for communicating them to me. If you wish to have any Diptera german or exotic let me know. The steamboat going between Harnburgh and London will be the surest mode of communication, but in case you send any insects I desire you will pack them so that they may bear the landcarriage; if you put the box containing the insects into another box, somewhat wider and fill the space between with tow, or cotton, but loosely, it will stand landcarriage. I am Sir! Yours C.R.W. Wiedemann. My address: Dr. Wiedemann Prof. Medic. Kiel in Holstein." THE DIPTERIST C.R.W. WIEDEMANN 127 ,z4 ..;AL Z,7172-a2 60W,2'eW Q/9 e0 - en" . 65.7.ig.e.ez# .7-Ze-ie'.A-" ci--&•, ' 47v-i-e/ - 01-La. - : 4-e/a-t2e/ E''''------70--;- - ,--7.1 -A-2 v2-,-c-- -e-e-L--7- Ac7-...,-. --- ,0.-- 1-e-eR,;-ti • ,4---- ---,7- -'‘ -.:V',e--- ,v-.--q,,- ,,,---- 0?0,- ,.•,----,•'-, -,,-,---,..,,-z-f-e- z_ -,.--e-,,-, '''‘-z-z ..e---:- ,-Ae.,,,,,---;.7-:.a.----- ,e-/-,--f ____,Z tayc c.oz-i>»,, --Y-le---'49.7,/" ..b-,,-re ,ki-Ae- e:::-/-.ede--7(-) te-,,,,Oz--2 K•-- - ef,e; o''71e,,e..„,--) 'wo.,a, -',0.,-,:e- -//e7t„;"--%..7 ea,,,,,e:ve . .7,z0,,-.7z2---i 66,e-f.-5 6Th J't- gfeeeem,zim---ao-je,/, (Mirt2,2—evffier,,G11,( /r-t-W'' f.r X-e41C4;71Y. 128 A.C. PONT was a celebrated figure in early Romantic literary System der chemischen Kenntnisse (1801)3. circles of the day but died in 1809. A brother There was even time for productive work on Gottfried Philipp Michaelis was also a medical natural history, and he wrote Ubersicht der mine- doctor, and a warm friendship developed between ralogischen einfachen Fossilien (1800). Eve- him and Wiedemann, so much so that when Mi- nings were also spent in more convivial activities. chaelis died in a cholera epidemic Wiedemann Once a fortnight the Wiedemanns held musical took his two sons into his house and brought them evenings, and Wiedemann performed on the vio- up as his own.