Johann Wilhelm Meigen (3 May 1764 - 11 July 1845) was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera. May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ... Suborders Archidiptera Eudiptera Brachycera Diptera are insects in which the hind wings are reduced to halteres. ...

Life

Early Years

Meigen was born on 3 May 1764 in Solingen, Germany, the fifth of eight children of Johann Clemens Meigen and Sibylla Margaretha Bick. His parents, though not poor, were not wealthy either. The ran a small shop in Solingen. His paternal grandparents however owned an estate and hamlet with twenty houses. As well as the rental income, Meigen’s grandfather was a farmer and a guild mastercutler in Solingen. Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... A guild is an association of people of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. ...

Two years after Meigen was born his grandparents died and his parents moved to the estate of his grandparents already heavily indebted by the Seven Years War. Bad crops and rash speculations forced sale and the family moved back to Solingen. This article is about the 1756–1763 war. ...

Meigen attended the town school but only for a short time. Fortunately he had learned to read and write on his grandfather’s estate and he read widely at home as well as taking an interest in natural history. A lodger in the household, a state surveyor named Stamm gave Meigen instruction in mathematics. Another family friend a Reformed Church organist and teacher called Berger, gave him lessons from his 10th year on in piano, orthography, and calligraphy, Later on, in 1776, he also taught him French. Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ... Math sucks. ... The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations historically related by a similar Zwinglian or Calvinist system of doctrine but organizationally independent. ... An organist is a musician who plays the organ, whether pipe or electronic. ... This article is about the modern musical instrument. ... The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ... Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of AD 1407 on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ...

Meigen became Berger's assistant, going to Mülheim, with him. There he saw for the first time a somewhat systematic collection of butterflies, and here he also learnt how to collect and prepare insects. Systematic was a hard rock band from California, USA. The band was one of the first signings to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrichs record label, The Music Company (via Elektra Records). ... For other uses of the term butterfly, see butterfly (disambiguation). ...

In the Autumn of 1779 he returned to Solingen to help his parents, at first by giving private lessons in French, but in the following year he started a French school that lasted until early in 1784. During his few free hours in this period he studied history from Charles Rollin's 15 volume Roman History and that author's 4 volume Ancient History (both in French). The only entomological work in his possession at this time was Moder's (orKleemann's) Caterpillar Calendar. Charles Rollin (January 30, 1661 _ December 14, 1741) was a French historian and educationist. ...

Later in 1784, he was recommended to Pelzer a tradesman in Aachen for the position of resident tutor, where on taking up the post, he was treated as a family member.Pelzer had a cousin in Aachen by the name of Mathias Baumhauer,a wool merchant's son, who was a very able entomologist. Baumhauer had a butterfly collection including about 1200 species as well as numbers of insects of all other orders. Order is the opposite of anarchy and chaos. ...

Early entomology

Meigen’s first attempts to identify his collection which was mainly of Diptera were made with a two volume work by Philipp Ludwig Statius Muller a German translation of Linnaeus's Natursystem published in Holland by Houttyn. He soon made his first discovery. The Linnean genera were too inclusive and a better classification could be arrived at using wing venation. This conclusion had already occurred to both Moses Harris in England and Louis Jurine in Geneva but at the time Meigen was unaware of this. Sensing an important step forward he secured the works of Fabricius and from that time concentrated on Diptera. Suborders Archidiptera Eudiptera Brachycera Diptera are insects in which the hind wings are reduced to halteres. ... Philipp Ludwig Statius Muller (1725 - 1776) was a zoologist. ... Moses Harris (1731 - 1785) was an English entomologist and engraver. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... Louis Jurine (1751-1819) was a Swiss physician and naturalist mainly interested in entomology. ... Geneva (French: Genève) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman, but the Genevois and Genevoise are fond of calling it Lac de Genève) empties into the Rhône River. ... Johann Christian Fabricius. ...

He soon found that wing venation alone was not enough to classify the Dipera correctly and he began to make drawings of the antennae viewed under a 20-power wooden-framed microscope purchased at the fair in Aachen, This, a lens of about 6-power, and his own very sharp eyesight and visual memory led him to the next important conclusion, that the Diptera could only be classified using character combinations; what is now known as an eclectic system.. Antennae (singular antenna), are the paired appendages connecting to the first (and in crustaceans also to the second) segment of the head of the members of all subphyla of the arthropods except Chelicerata. ... 1852 microscope Compound microscope made by John Cuff in 1750 A microscope (Greek: micron = small and scopos = aim) is an instrument for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. ... Eclecticism is an approach to thought that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions or conclusions, but instead draws upon multiple theories to gain complementary insights into phenomena, or applies only certain theories in particular cases. ...

Return to Solingen

In 1786 the Solingen organist, a younger brother of his former teacher Berger died in Solingen. That position, with a French school connected with it,was offered to Meigen and he went back to Solingen.

There he became closely accquainted with a man called Weniger, who shared his interests in botany and entomology.His enthusiasm for entomology and botany became broader and he decided to extend his studies to world species. Weniger felt likewise and they contacted a Herr Gerning in Frankfurt. Gerning wrote to his son in Holland,who bought insect specimens for him. A Swiss, Count von Meuron, who was in the Dutch service and whose brother was governor of Trincomalee on Ceylon heard of their wishes and obtained for them the offer of positions as surgeons on an East Indiaman, with an additional stipend.This plan was given up when Meigen’s mother opposed it. Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ...   Frankfurt am Main[?] [ˈfraÅ‹kfÊŠrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ... Trincomalee is a port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka, about 110 miles northeast of Kandy. ... An East Indiaman was a ship belonging to the British East India Company. ...

To Burtscheid

In 1792 Meigen took instruction in drawing. Then he was offered a teaching position in Burtscheid near Aachen. However, he could not leave Solingen because the it was occupied by the French army during the Battle of Jemappes . Only when the French withdrew after the Battle of Neerwinden was he able to leave for Burtscheid and Aachen, where he then taught as well as collecting assiduously. The district of Aachen (Kreis Aachen) is a Kreis (district) in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... The Battle of Jemappes (November 6, 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Belgium, near Mons. ... The Battle of Neerwinden (18 March 1793) took place near the village of Neerwinden in present-day Belgium between the Austrians under Prince Josias of Coburg and the French under General Dumouriez. ...

In 1796, Meigen took a job teaching French in Stolberg, 2 hours from Aachen. Here he remained without further change of residence until his death. In Stolberg he taught French in the school, and outside of school hours he taught drawing, geography, history and piano, At this time he had became acquainted with a brass-worker named J. A. Peltzer, who was a mathematician and owned a 60-power Tiedemann achromatic telescope. Soon Meigen was teaching asronomy as well. Drawing is one of many ways to making an image; it is the process of making marks on a surface by applying pressure from or moving a tool on the surface. ... ...

In 1801 Meigen made the acquaintance French naturalist Count Lacépède,then Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor. Count Lacépède came to Stolberg to visit the then flourishing brass works in the town. At a luncheon and they talked about natural history and Meigen showed Count Lacépède his drawings of Diptera. The following day Meigen was asked to visit Count Lacépède who asked him to be botanist on Capt. Baudin's voyage around theworld. Meigen declined. de La Cépède Bernard Germain Étienne comte de La Ville-sur-Illon La Cépède (December 26, 1756 – October 6, 1825) was a French naturalist. ...

In 1802 Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger who must have heard of Miegen from Count Lacépède and was taking the baths in Aachen with Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg in Aachen invited him to join them. Meigen took his drawings along, and made arrangementswith Illiger and Hoffmannsegg for future work, Illiger had captured a new and unknown Dipteron and showed a pen drawing of it to Meigen, asking him how it should be classified. Meigen described it as Eoxocera Hoffmannseggi. Illiger agreed to proofread Meigen's first work on Diptera which was then published in 1804 by Reichard in Braunschweig. Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (November 19, 1775 - May 1813) was a German entomologist who also worked on birds and mammals. ... Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg (August 23, 1766 - December 13, 1849) was a German botanist, entomologist and ornithologist. ...

Controversy

In 1804 the only classification of Diptera was that of Fabricius . Despite Meigen’s more advanced, and more natural classification Meigen's Die Fliegen found little favour with most entomologists, who were adherents of Fabricius, but that did not deflect Meigen. Johann Christian Fabricius. ...

In the same year Fabricius visited Paris and saw Meigen’s work. On returning home, he wrote Meigen and arranged to meet him in Aachen. A few days later Fabricius came to Stolberg Here he was shown all of Meigen's new genera in order that he might use them in the projected new edition of the Systema Antliatorum. Fabricius criticized Meigen for his eclectic method, asserting that a classification should be based upon one part of the body, (mainly mouthparts) not on several different parts. Meigen pointed out that Fabricius himself did not consistently follow his own precepts but even so Fabricius refused to use the eclectic method. The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Marriage and more work

In 1801 Meigen married Anna, the sister of the Reverend Mänsse, a preacher at Hückelhoven near Linnich. Anna was clearly devoted to Meigen though hard times were ahead. Until 1808 the number of students of French steadily declined, resulting of course in a considerable reduction in Meigen's income.In this crisis, a merchant in Stolberg, one Adolf Pelzer, obtained for him the secretaryship for the Stolberg commercial committee, including keeping minutes of meetings and carrying on correspondence in both German and French. Then, in another reversal, he was replaced by a voluntary secretariat.

Coal Fossils

In 1812 the French government provided Meigen with incidental but well-paid work .One of his jobs, occupying him for 314 days of a year, was that of finishing drawings of Coal fossils. At this time his work day began usually at about 4 in the morning and lasted until late in the evening. All free time was spent with the study of entomology;although devoted principally to the Diptera, he did not neglect the other orders. He also studied history and mathematics.Besides doing a considerable amount of work on butterflies, Hymenoptera, and plants, he drew and colored all of the species in his great work on Diptera. A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Suborders Apocrita Symphyta Many families, see article Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. ...

From 1812 to 1814 Meigen drew some maps for the municipality of Stolberg. He also corresponded again with Count von Hoffmannsegg, until the latter sold his collection to the Berlin Museum.

An offer from Wiedemann

In 1815, Meigen received a letter from State Attorney (Justizrat) Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann asking if there was any prospect that his work begun in 1804 could be continued. He offered access to the Fabricius collection in the University of Kiel. Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann was a German naturalist and entomologist born in Braunschweig 7th December 1770. ... The University of Kiel, in full the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (in short: CAU), is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. ...

In the summer of 1816 Wiedemann himself came to Stolberg and stayed 8 days. He had been working tirelessly on what was now an ambitious project. He had material sent to Meigen from the Vienna Museum, from the Hoffmannsegg collection in Berlin, and from the Peter Simon Pallas collection. Meigen worked constantly and in 1818 the first volume of the new and enlarged edition came out, followed by the others until the 7th volume appeared in 1838. For this last volume Meigen had to make the lithographic plates himself to cut expenses. He also prepared 19 lithographic plates for his freind Wiedemann's Aussereuropaische Zweiflugler. The first volumes were published by Meigen himself, but the costs were high, in spite of a considerable list of subscriptions. The Schulz bookdealers in Hamm took over the job with a sizeable honorarium. Naturhistorisches Museum Wien The Naturhistorisches Museum (German: Museum of Natural History) is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria. ...   Berlin[?] (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city; down from 4. ... Peter Simon Pallas (September 22, 1741 - September 8, 1811) was a German-born Russian zoologist. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. ...

In 1818, Meigen's longtime friend and tireless collector Baumhauer died in Paris. His widow brought his collection to Aachen and got Meigen to determine it. He took on the determination of at least 50,000 specimens from Germany, France, the Pyrenees, the Alps and northern Italy and worked on it for a year and a half without recompense . The collection was then sold for 1100 Dutch guilders, part of it going to Leiden and part to Luttich. Central Pyrenees The Pyrenees (French: Pyrénées; Spanish: Pirineos; Occitan: Pirenèus or Pirenèas; Catalan Pirineus; Aragonese: Perinés; Basque: Pirinioak) are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...

These years were very certainly hard. In 1816 and 1817 Because of poor harvests, food prices rose enormously. There were 7 children in his family at this time and his income was extremely low, there being now no demand for a French teacher, the French Empire having collapsed . Eventually, through the fortunate intervention of the inspector of water supply, he got a well paid contract for some map-drawing lasting a couple of years. Astronomy also brought him some map-work. Arms of the First Empire The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. ...

He was

able,however to make a trip to the Siebengebirge chiefly for botanical purposes, although as a resultof it Meigen made some drawings of plants for Prof. Lehmann of Hamburg.In 1821, Meigen made the acquaintance of Prof. Gaede of Luttich, whose name he gave to Trypeta gaedii and the tachinid genus Gaedia.

Wiedemann's second visit and a trip to Scandinavia

In 1822 Wiedemann made a second visit to Meigen, proposing that Meigen come to Kiel and revise the Fabrician collection, and offering to defray expenses.Meigen gladly accepted, leaving for Hamburg on 23 June 1823. He was met in Hamburg by the entomologist Von Winthem, who invited him to stay at his home.Meigen, found himself in the house in which the great poet and dramatist Klopstock spent the last 30 years of his life which Von Winthem's sister Johanna Elisabeth von Winthem Klopstocks woidow then owned . Here he studied the Winthem collection is which contained so much that Meigen had to leave a more careful review of it for his return trip. He went on to Kiel to meet Wiedemann, He also met Heinrich Boie in Kiel. Next Meigen and Wiedemann went to Copenhagen to visit Westermann and work on the Museum collection, postponing the main job on the Fabrician collection. Meigen was permitted to take all of the material to his quarters for examination. On the 19th of July, the two of them went to Lund, where both Prof. Carl Fredrik Fallén and [[Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedtmet them. Meigen made as much use as possible of this opportunity to examine Fallén's and Zetterstedt's collections. Hamburg is Germanys second largest city (after Berlin) and, with the Hamburg Harbour, its principal port. ... Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (July 2, 1724 - March 14, 1803), German poet, was born at Quedlinburg, the eldest son of a lawyer, a man of sterling character and of a deeply religious mind. ... Statistics State: Schleswig-Holstein District: Independent city Area: 113. ... Heinrich Boie (May 4, 1784 - September 4, 1827) was a German zoologist. ... Copenhagen (Danish: København) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, and the name of the municipality (Danish, kommune) in which it resides. ... Lund is a city in Scania in southernmost Sweden, and the center of the Lund Municipality. ... Carl Fredrik Fallén (September 22, 1764 - August 26, 1830) was a Swedish botanist and entomologist. ... Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt (1785-1874) was a Swedish naturalist who worked mainly on Diptera and Hymenoptera. ...

On the 23rd of July, Wiedemann and Meigen returned to Copenhagen, where Meigen stayed On the 30th they were back in Kiel, where everything in the collections of Fabricius and Westermann was carefully examined and compared and the unknown species drawn and described.After completing the research in Kiel, both left for Hamburg.There Meigen examined the Winthem collection, but there were so many new species in it that Winthem decided to send it all to Stolberg, where it could be worked on more conveniently. In Hamburg, Meigen met the wellknown entomologist Sommer from Altona and the botanist Lehmann

The trip to Denmark and Sweden lasted altogether 12 weeks, the result of which was aseries of colored drawings of more than 400 species of insects, together with their descriptions and a large amount of corrections and notes. Studies of his collection of the Diptera in Fabricius ' collection led to very substantial revision. Johann Christian Fabricius. ...

Last Years

Soon after 1822 The French school soon closed down completely and Meigen took the unpaid position of organist for his parish but he wrote a choral book, for which the church board paid him well. Meigen continued in this capacity until 1831.

In 1825, Meigen made a translation of François Fénelon ‘s Telemachus, and in the same year he was enabled to attend a meeting of naturalists in Berlin.Meigen's expenses were organised by Nees von Esenbeck, and many to whom he was known through his works on Diptera. He also saw there again Wiedemann. He took advantage of this occasion also to examine the collection of the Berlin Museum and those of Ruthé and Bouché (accent) François de Salignac de la Mothe, more commonly known as François Fénelon (1651 - 1715), was a French Roman Catholic theologian, poet and writer. ... The Museum für Naturkunde (in English, the Museum of Natural History), widely known as the Humboldt Museum of Berlin, is the first national museum in the world, with a massive collection of more than 25 million zoological, paleontological, and minerological specimens, including more than ten thousand type specimens. ...

Von Winthem visited Meigen in 1826. Meigen also made a trip in that year to Crefeld and Dusseldorf. The following year, 1824, a Handbook for Butterfly Collectors appeared under his name, and he also started a much larger work on Lepidoptera. This latter appeared in fascicles, each of 10 quarto plates lithographed by Meigen himself. It went as far as the Euphalaenae, where lack of funds brought it to a close. He colored the plates in a few copies. The figures, except a very few borrowed from other works, were drawn by Meigen from specimens, with unstinting help in the form of material from the collection of an old friend Seeger. Krefeld is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Düsseldorf in Germany The Düsseldorf Coat of Arms Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

After discontinuance of the work on Lepidoptera and the completion of that on Diptera with its 6th volume, Meigen had Diptera sent to him for determination from many sources. Outstanding among them were contributions from Walt1 and Bronn, These induced him to work up a supplementary volume, which was notable for the division of the genera Tachina, Musca, and Anthomyia into a number of genera based upon more critical charactersthan those used previous French and English workers. See genus (mathematics) for the use of the term in mathematics. ...

At the same time Meigen worked industriously-on a Flora of Germany, which was not completed until a few years before his death. The last volume of this work, also containing numerous drawings made largely from nature by Meigen himself, appeared in 1842. It was his last work.

When the French dipterologist Macquart visited him in 1839 to see his collection, Meigen also showed him 2 thick quarto volumes of drawings containing 300 plates of colored and mostly enlarged drawings of all the species that had passed under his eyes. Macquart told Meigen that he would like to buy them, quoting a price of 1800 francs on behalf of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. He paid an additional 1200 francs for Meigen's collection of Diptera, which also went to Paris.

Meigen then disposed of his library and the remainder of his collection also. His library and fruit and plant collection was bought by the Verein fiir nfltzliche Wissenschaften und Gewerbe (Society for useful sciences and industry) in Aachen, All of his insects other than Diptera were bought by Arnold Foerster, along with a few manuscripts including colored drawings of Hymenoptera. Arnold Foerster (1810-1884) was a German entomologist of distinction. ...

In 1839, the Crown-Prince of Prussia awarded Mei with a pension of 200 thalers a year.

On the 3rd of May, 1845 Meigen was presented with a doctor's diploma from the University of Bonn. It was his last pleasure. Meigen died in Stolberg near Aachen (=Aix-la-Chapelle), on 11 July 1845 at the age of 83. The main building, viewed from the Hofgarten. ...

Achievements

Meigen is universally recognized as the "father" of Dipterology. Aside from his beautifully executed drawings Meigen's great achievement was to employ combinations of morphological characters to work out his scientific classification. This was in contrast to his Swedish contemporary Carl Frederick Fallén who had used mouthpart characters alone. Thus he had come to the same conclusion as Pierre André Latreille, though independently. Suborders Archidiptera Eudiptera Brachycera Diptera are insects in which the hind wings are reduced to halteres. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Carl Frederick Fallén (September 22, 1764 - August 26, 1830) was a Swedish botanist and entomologist. ... Pierre André Latreille. ...

Meigen described a vast number of European Diptera (mostly valid) and his work laid the foundations of all later work on this important insect group. World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ...

Meigen was the naming authority of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which is a model organism in the study of genetics. Binomial name Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 dorsal view Drosophila melanogaster (Black-bellied Dew-lover) a dipteran (two-winged) insect, is the species of fruit fly that is commonly used in genetic experiments; it is among the most important model organisms. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ...

Works

• Meigen, J. W., 1804., Klassifikazion und Beschreibung der europäischen zweiflügeligen Insekten Part 1 , in English, Systematic description of the known European two-winged insects. Reichard,Braunschweig [= Brunswick] (5 November)
• Meigen, J. W., 1820, Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europäischen zweiflügeligenInsektenPart 2 F.W. Forstmann, Aachen.(before December).

Collections

Most of the the Meigen collection is in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. There are other specimens,including types in the Natural History Museum of Vienna . The Muséum national dHistoire naturelle (MNHN) is the French national museum of natural history. ... Naturhistorisches Museum Wien The Naturhistorisches Museum (German: Museum of Natural History) is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria. ...

External links

• Wikisite in German
• Biography by J. A. Förster