Peter Jørgensen (entomologist)

Peter Jørgensen in Villarrica 1933, Photo by Poul ("Pablo") Schouboe

Peter Jørgensen ("Pedro Jorgensen") (3 August 1870 in Sønderby, Funen – June 1937 in Villarrica, Paraguay) was a Danish early 20th century entomologist, active particularly in Argentina and Paraguay.

Life

Peter Jørgensen was educated teacher of English and German from Copenhagen 1889. In 1892 he acquired tuberculosis — a condition he suffered from throughout the remainder of his life. In 1906, he joined his friend Anders Christian Jensen-Haarup on a trip to the Mendoza Province in western Argentina in the hope that the arid Andean climate of that region would be beneficial to his health. The two naturalists made extensive insect collections, which were either sold (e.g. to the German entomologist Heinrich Friese[1]) to cover their travel expenses or were sent to specialists for identification. They also published short accounts (in Danish) on their adventures in Argentina.

Jørgensen moved on to Paraguay, where he settled near Villarrica. He committed his life to a small farm and further entomological research. He also became a plant collector for several American museums. He was found murdered at his farm in June 1937.

Bibliography

Legacy

Jørgensen’s extensive collection activity in understudied regions and his meticulous descriptions of specimens resulted in numerous new species being described by himself and by specialists around the World, with whom he corresponded. Heinrich Friese described 143 new taxa of Argentine bees collected in part by Jørgensen and Jensen-Haarup.[1] Also the British-American zoologist Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell received specimens from Jørgensen and erected new species based on them. Today, a small fraction of his collections are kept in the Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen.

The monotypic ant lion genus Joergenia Esben-Petersen (1933) was named to his honour.[2] A number of insect species have similarly been named for him, e.g. Pontania joergenseni Enslin 1916 (Symphyta: Tenthredinidae), Tessella jorgenseni (Schaus, 1921) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) and Eurota joergenseni Orfila, 1931 (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae).

Notes

  1. 1 2 Friese 1908
  2. ↑ The only species in the genus, Joergenia pulchra Esben-Petersen (1933), has been found in Paraguay only. It was considered to belong to the genus Eremoleon by Stange (1970, p. 20).

References

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