Adalbert Seitz
Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in
Biography
Seitz was born in Mainz and went to school in Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt and Bensheim. He studied medicine from 1880 to 1885 and then zoology at Giessen. His doctorate was on the protective devices of animals. He worked as an assistant in the maternity hospital of the University of Giessen and then worked as a ship's doctor from 1887, travelling to Australia, South America and Asia. He began to collect butterflies on these travels.
In 1891 he habilitated in zoology with a thesis on the biology of butterflies from the University of Giessen. In 1893 he took up a position as a director of the
Seitz moved to Darmstadt and invested much of his pension to aid zoo staff and then supported himself as the curator of the Senckenberg Museum, to which he donated his own butterfly collections. The idea for the book was first born in 1887 after meeting
Consulted collections of butterflies include those of
Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart
"The idea of a work for the identification of all the known Macrolepidoptera originated during an excursion which the editor made in Australia in the company of the late William McLeay. The suggestion put forward by this naturalist found further support in the following year in a consultation with Emilio A. Goeldi, the then director of the Zoological Museum at Rio de Janeiro, which induced me to enter into communication with Dr. O. Staudinger in order to confer with him about the feasibility of an extension, suiting the requirements of all collectors in foreign countries, of his work on Exotic Lepidoptera, which was in the course of publication.
But the imperfect technique and the absence of certain indispensable preliminary studies appeared to render it impossible at the time to carry out the plan. Nevertheless I commenced to work with a view towards a future realization of the idea. It seemed to me above all necessary to visit every faunistic region and subregion, as far as it might be possible, and consequently after leaving
, and various islands of the Indian and Chinese seas."- Preface
- Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)
- Band 2: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1912–1913
- Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914
- Band 4: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die spannerartigen Nachtfalter, 1915
- Band 5: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die Großschmetterlinge des amerikanischen Faunengebietes, 1907
- Band 6: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die amerikanischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1940, 1327 Seiten, 198 Tafeln
- Band 7: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die amerikanischen Eulen, 1923, 508 Seiten, 87 Tafeln
- Band 8: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die amerikanischen Spanner, 1907, 144 Seiten, 16 Tafeln
- Band 9: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen Tagfalter, 1927, 1197 Seiten 177 Tafeln
- Band 10: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1933, 847 Seiten, 104 Tafeln
- Band 11: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1924, 1141 Seiten, 203 Tafeln
- Band 12: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen Geometridae
- Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln
- Band 14: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1925–1930, 80 Tafeln
- Band 15: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 286 Seiten, 41 Tafeln
- Band 16: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen spannerartigen Nachtfalter, 1929, 160 Seiten, 18 Tafeln
- Band 1, Supplement: Die palaearktischen Tagfalter,
- Band 2, Supplement: Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer
- Band 3, Supplement: Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter
- Band 4, Supplement: Die spannerartigen Nachtfalter
Authors contributing to The Macrolepidoptera of the World include Adalbert Seitz himself,
References
- ^ Hock, Sabine (2017). "Seitz, Adalbert". Frankfurter Personenlexikon (online edition) (in German).
Sources
- Francis J. Griffin (1936) The contents of the parts and the dates of appearance of Seitz' Grossschmetterlinge der Erde (The Macro-Lepidoptera of the world), Lieferungen 1 to 130 Palearctic and 1 to 575 exotic. Vols. 1 to 16, 1907–1935. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 85(10):243–279
- Turati, E. 1938: [Seitz, A.] Boll. Soc. geogr. ital. 70: 94.
- Tuxen, S. L. 1938: [Seitz, A.] Ent. Meddel. 20: 187.