Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropod

Arthropod

An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...

s: insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, arachnid

Arachnid

Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, although in some species the front pair may convert to a sensory function. The term is derived from the Greek words , meaning "spider".Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial...

s, crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animal, and established the basis for modern insect classification.

Biography

Johan Christian Fabricius was born on the 7th of January 1745 at Tønder

Tønder

Tønder is a municipality in Region of Southern Denmark on the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 1,278 km², and has a total population of 40,367...

 in the Duchy of Schleswig, where his father was a doctor. He studied at the gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 at Altona

Altona, Hamburg

Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...

 and entered the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

 in 1762. Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga

Johan Zoëga

Johan Zoëga 20 December 1788 was a Danish entomologist and botanist.Zoëga was a friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a pupil of Carl Linnaeus who specialized in mosses....

 to Uppsala

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

, where he studied under Carl Linnaeus for two years. On his return, he started work on his , which was finally published in 1775. Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, who worked as a consultant at Frederiks Hospital

Frederiks Hospital

The royal Frederiks Hospital was Denmark's first hospital in the present-day meaning of the word. It was founded by king Frederik V and financed by the earnings from the Norwegian Postal Service....

.

Fabricius was appointed a professor in Copenhagen in 1770, and in 1775 or 1776, the University of Kiel

University of Kiel

The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...

 appointed Fabricius Professor of Natural History and Economics, promising that they would build a natural history museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

 and a botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

. Although he tried to resign three times, on one occasion only being prevented by an appeal from his students to the Danish King and Duke of Schleswig, Christian VII

Christian VII of Denmark

Christian VII was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death. He was the son of Danish King Frederick V and his first consort Louisa, daughter of King George II of Great Britain....

, Fabricius held the position at Kiel for the rest of his life.

During his time in Kiel, Fabricius repeatedly travelled to London in the summer to study the collections of British collectors, such as Joseph Banks

Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...

 and Dru Drury

Dru Drury

Dru Drury was a British entomologist, one of the foremost of his time.He was born in Wood Lane, London. His father was a silversmith, and Dru took over the business in 1748. He retired as a silversmith in 1789 to devote his time entirely to entomology...

. Towards the end of his career, Fabricius spent much of his time living in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he frequently met with naturalists such as Georges Cuvier

Georges Cuvier

Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...

 and Pierre André Latreille

Pierre André Latreille

Pierre André Latreille was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis...

, but on hearing of the British attack on Copenhagen

Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

 in 1807, Fabricius returned to Denmark, damaging his already fragile health. He died on the 3rd of March 1808, at the age of 63. His daughter died in an accident in Paris, but he was survived by two sons, who both studied medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

.

Works

Fabricius is considered one of the greatest entomologists of the 18th century. He was a greater observer of insects than his more botanically

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

-minded mentor, Carl Linnaeus. Fabricius named 9,776 species of insects, compared to Linnaeus' tally of around 3,000.

In contrast to Linnaeus' classification of the insects, which was based primarily on the number of wings

Insect wing

Insects are the only group of invertebrates known to have evolved flight. Insects possess some remarkable flight characteristics and abilities, still far superior to attempts by humans to replicate their capabilities. Even our understanding of the aerodynamics of flexible, flapping wings and how...

, and their form, Fabricius used the form of the mouthparts

Insect mouthparts

Insects exhibit a range of mouthparts, adapted to particular modes of feeding. The earliest insects had chewing mouthparts...

 to discriminate the orders (which he termed "classes"). He stated "those whose nourishment and biology are the same, must then belong to the same genus". Fabricius' system remains the basis of insect classification today, although the names he proposed are not. For instance, his name for the class containing the beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

s was "Eleutherata", rather than the modern "Coleoptera", and he used "Piezata" for Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants. There are over 130,000 recognized species, with many more remaining to be described. The name refers to the heavy wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek ὑμήν : membrane and...

; his term Glossata

Glossata

Glossata is the suborder of the insect order Lepidoptera that includes all the superfamilies of moths and butterflies that have a coilable proboscis. ....

 is still in use, but for a slightly smaller group almong the Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

, rather than the whole order. Fabricius also foresaw that the male genitalia would provide useful characters for systematics

Systematics

Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...

, but could not apply that insight himself.

Fabricius was the first to divide the Staphylinidae (rove beetles), which Linnaeus had considered a single genus he called "Staphylinus," establishing in 1775 the genus Paederus

Paederus

Paederus is a genus of small beetles of the family Staphylinidae . Due to toxins in the hemolymph of many species within this genus, it has given its name to paederus dermatitis, a characteristic skin irritation that occurs if one of the insects is crushed against skin...

. He also described 77 species of Staphylinidae.

His major works on systematic entomology were:

• (1775)
• (1776)
• (1781)
• (1787)
• (1792–1799)
• (1801)
• (1803)
• (1804)
• (1805)
• (1807)

Fabricius' collections are shared between the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

, London, the , Paris, the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford, the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

The University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is the oldest public museum in Scotland. It is located in various buildings on the main campus of the University in the west end of Glasgow.-History:...

, Glasgow, the Zoological Museum in Kiel, Kiel, and the , Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

Fabricius also wrote a few works on economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, although these are much less important than his zoological works. They include (1773), (1786–1790) and (1781).

Further reading

• ZMCU Collection contents online
• Digital version of Entomologia systematica, emendata et aucta
• Henriksen, Kai L. (1932) Johann Christian Fabricius, pp. 76–80 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.

External Links

• An accentuated list of the British Lepidoptera London 1858 Biography on page XVI givesFabricius own account of his travels