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Wolfgang Schawaller
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Head of Entomology Department |
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Taxonomic specialization: |
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ADDRESS: |
Staatliches Museum fuer Naturkunde |
DATE and PLACE of BIRTH: |
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Wolfgang Schawaller is an eminent modern coleopterist maintaining permanent close relations with many colleagues in our country. He visited Russia and CIS many times and has long been examining fauna of these countries. As early as in his school years (1955—1968) W. Schawaller was interested in terrestrial arthropods and after finishing high school in 1968 entered JohannesGutenberg-Universitat, Mainz where he received diploma of a biologist in 1976. In 1977—1979 he was a volunteer at the Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart. There he wrote a dissertation for the degree of Ph. D. In 1980 through 1983 he worked at Stuttgart Museum with the support of the German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and in 1983 was designated Curator of the Entomology Department. In 1989 he became senior curator and in 1995 he became the head of the Entomology Department in that museum.
W. Schawaller is interestedn in many taxa of beetles (Agyrtidae, Silphidae, Discolomidae, Prostomidae, Tenebrionidae, etc.) although the main subject of study is the family (Tenebrionidae). Apart from that he is widely known as a specialist on pseudoscorpions to which he devoted a number of publications. At present he works on review of subfamilies and tribes of Palearctic tenebrionids.
Expeditions of W. Schawaller cover many regions of the Eastern Hemisphere: Kashmir-Ladakh (1976), Nepal (1983, 1988, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000), Western Siberia (1986), Israel, Virginia (1989), Eastern Siberia (1990), Philippines (1991), Kirghizia and Kazakhstan (1993), Azerbaijan (1996), South China (1999), Kazakhastan (2001), South African Republic (2001). Many expeditions of W. Schawaller to our country were conducted jointly with S. Golovach and ÈÏÝÝ ÐÀÍ. Among the trips of W. Schawaller of particular importance were his expeditions to Nepal, which started as joint research with Jochen Martens and later became integrated field studies of Coleoptera.
As a result a great number of species of different families were collected, which were studied by many coleopterists and on which a large number of papers were published. Material of this research was repeatedly used in monographs of different authors. A part of his spare time W. Schawaller spends on speleology and together with his friends organizes expeditions to caves in the south of Central and Southern Europe. During those trips he also collects insects. W. Schawaller is known to many not only as an expert in systematics and excellent collector. He also supports studies conducted by many specialists providing scientific material and inspires young coleopterists and laymen. He carries out huge work on preparation and conducting annual coleopterological meetings in (Beutelsbach) which initially were meetings of German coleopterists for preparation of multivolume series «Die Kaefer Mitteleuropas and now became the most popular meeting of coleopterists of many European countries (professionals and laymen).
It is held annually at the end of October and has now become actually an international meeting although it still retains its original title (Tagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft sudwestdeutcher Koleopterologen). For many recent years W. Schawaller has invariably been a chairman at these meetings. W. Schawaller is interested in all studies conducted of beetles and because of his sociability is coordinator of specialists in different fields of science as well as of laymen. Important communications are presented during those meetings and laymen exchange material and information, different issues are discussed at plenary and section meetings. Any forms of activity, communication and cooperation are permissible here. However, anything that has to do with commerce is strictly prohibited.
W. Schawaller visited the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992 and several times visited Moscow entomological institutions. He examined material on several taxa of beetles deposited in Russian collections and has been cooperating for many years with specialists of our country interested in beetle fauna of the Himalayas and other mountain ranges of Asia and also islands of the Indo-Malayan region.
A.G. Kirejtshuk, January, 2002.
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Schawaller, W. (1986): Schawaller, W. (1987): Schawaller, W. (1991): Schawaller, W. (1991): Schawaller, W. (1997): Schawaller, W. (2000): |
Last updated: Janury 29, 2002