Johan August Wahlberg was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and explorer.
Wahlberg started studying chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 at the University of Uppsala in 1829, and later forestry, agronomy and natural science, graduating from the Institute of Forestry in 1834. In 1832 he joined Professor Carl Henrik Boheman

Carl Henrik Boheman

Carl Henrik Boheman was a Swedish entomologist.Boheman studied at Lund University and trained as an officer, participating in the invasion of Norway in 1814...

, a famous entomologist, on a collecting trip to Norway. In 1833 and 1834 he travelled in Sweden and Germany on forestry research projects. He joined the Office of Land Survey and was appointed an engineer in 1836, becoming an instructor at the Land Survey College.

He travelled in southern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 between 1838 and 1856, sending thousands of natural history specimens back to Sweden. He was exploring the headwaters of the Limpopo River

Limpopo River

The Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 170 m³/s at its mouth...

 when he was killed by a wounded elephant.

Before his death was known in Sweden, on October 8, 1856 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

, since the news of his death had not reached Stockholm at this time. He is thus the only member of this academy who has been elected after his death.

He is commemorated in Wahlberg's Eagle

Wahlberg's Eagle

The Wahlberg's Eagle is a bird of prey. It is about 55–60 cm in length and has a wingspan of 130–160 cm. Body mass is 1.04 kg for males and 1.3 kg for females on average. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.Wahlberg's Eagle breeds in most of Africa south of...

 Aquila wahlbergi (Sundevall

Carl Jakob Sundevall

Carl Jakob Sundevall was a Swedish zoologist.Sundevall studied at Lund University, where he became a Ph.D. in 1823. After traveling to East Asia, he studied medicine, graduating as Doctor of Medicine in 1830....

 1851), Wahlberg's Honeyguide

Wahlberg's Honeyguide

The Brown-backed Honeybird , also known as the Wahlberg's Honeybird or Wahlberg's Honeyguide, is a species of bird in the Indicatoridae family....

 Prodotiscus regulus (Sundevall 1850), Wahlberg's Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus, Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat Epomophorus wahlbergi, the Bush Squeaker

Bush Squeaker

The Bush Squeaker is a species of frog in the Arthroleptidae family.It is found along the coastal areas of eastern South Africa and possibly Mozambique.-Habitat:...

 Arthroleptis wahlbergii Smith

Andrew Smith (zoologist)

Sir Andrew Smith KCB was a Scottish surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist. He is considered the father of Zoology in South Africa having described many species across a wide range of groups in his major work, Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.Smith was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire...

, 1849 (a frog), and a tree Entada wahlbergi.

Works

• with Wallengren, H. D. J.
  Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren
  Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren was a Swedish entomologist. He was born in Lund.-External links:* Papilio anthemenes a butterfly described by Hans Wallengren....
  
  . Kafferlandets Dag-fjärilar, insamlade åren 1838—1845. Lepidoptera Rhopalocera, in Terra Caffrorum. Annis 1838-1845. K. svenska VetenskAkad. Handl. 2(4): 5—55.(1857). [in Swedish]
• with Wallengren, H. D. J. (1864). Heterocera-Fjärilar, samlade i Kafferlandet. K. svenska VetenskAkad. Handl. 5(4): 1-83.(1864) [in Swedish]

Wahlberg,s South African Coleoptera were described by Carl Henrik Boheman

Carl Henrik Boheman

Carl Henrik Boheman was a Swedish entomologist.Boheman studied at Lund University and trained as an officer, participating in the invasion of Norway in 1814...

 and O.J. Fahraeus

Olof Immanuel von Fåhraeus

Olof Immanuel Fåhraeus , was a Swedish politician and entomologist mainly interested in Coleoptera....

-

• Boheman, C.H. (1851). Insecta Caffrariae annis 1838-1845 a J.A. Wahlberg collecta. Coleoptera. Holmiae : Fritze & Norstedt Vol. 1 8 + 625 pp.
• Fahraeus, O.J. in Boheman, C.H. (1851). Insecta Caffrariae annis 1838-1845 a J.A. Wahlberg collecta. Coleoptera. Holmiae : Fritze & Norstedt Vol. 1 pp. 299–625