Johan Christian Fabricius

Johan Christian Fabricius.

Johan Christian Fabricius (January 7, 1745 – March 3, 1808) was a Danish entomologist and economist.

Fabricius was born at Tønder in the duchy of Schleswig. He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762. Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoega to Uppsala, where he studied under Carl von Linné for two years.

Fabricius worked primarily with arthropods and was a specialist on insects, classifying many spiders including the black widow. He was professor of natural history, economy and finance at the University of Kiel from 1775. He was a regular visitor to London where he studied many collections.

His works on insects included:

• Systema Entomologiae (1775),
• Genera Insectorum (1776),
• Species Insectorum (1781),
• Mantissa Insectorum (1787), and his main work,
• Entomologicae Systematica, revised and corrected, 4 volumes, (1792-1794); followed by
• Supplementum Entomologiae Systematicae (1798).

His works on economy included:

• Von der Volks-Vermehrung insonderheit in Dännemark. Hamburg und Kiel, bey C. E. Bohn, 1781. 88 pp.

Fabricius' collections are shared between the

• Natural History Museum, London
• Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris
• Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford
• Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow
• Zoologische Museum in Kiel
• Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.

References

• Henning Ratjen: Fabricius, Johann Christian. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, S. 521 f. (German)
• Friedrich Hoffmann: Fabricius, Johann Christian. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, S. 736 f. (German)
• Biography of Johan Christian Fabricius, in Dansk biografisk leksikon, 1st edition, Vol. 5 (1891), scanned original text on Projekt Runeberg (in Danish)
• 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.

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