Works
Fabricius is considered one of the greatest entomologists of the 18th century. He was a greater observer of insects than his more botanically-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, and their form, Fabricius used the form of the 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 beetles was "Eleutherata", rather than the modern "Coleoptera", and he used "Piezata" for Hymenoptera; his term Glossata is still in use, but for a slightly smaller group almong the Lepidoptera, rather than the whole order. Fabricius also foresaw that the male genitalia would provide useful characters for systematics, 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. He also described 77 species of Staphylinidae.
His major works on systematic entomology were:
- Systema entomologiæ (1775)
- Genera insectorum (1776)
- Species insectorum (1781)
- Mantissa insectorum (1787)
- Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta (1792–1799)
- Systema eleuthatorum (1801)
- Systema rhyngotorum (1803)
- Systema piezatorum (1804)
- Systema antliatorum (1805)
- Systema glossatorum (1807)
Fabricius' collections are shared between the Natural History Museum, London, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford, the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, the Zoological Museum in Kiel, Kiel, and the Statens Naturhistoriske Museum, Copenhagen.
Fabricius also wrote a few works on economics, although these are much less important than his zoological works. They include Begyndelsesgrundene i de økonomiske Videnskaber (1773), Polizeischriften (1786–1790) and Von der Volksvermehrung, insonderheit in Dänemark (1781).
The standard author abbreviation J.Fabr. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.Read more about this topic: Johan Christian Fabricius
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