Jørgen Matthias Christian Schiødte

Jørgen Matthias Christian Schiødte (20 April 1815 – 22 April 1884), or Jørgen Christian Matthias Schiødte, was a Danish entomologist, professor and museum curator.

Jørgen Matthias Christian Schiødte

Biography

Schiødte was born in Copenhagen and attended Borgerdydskolen in Christianshavn. From 1842, he was employed as curator of the Natural History Museum of Denmark and was a professor at the University of Copenhagen from 1845.

His work was widely read "for, as Schiodte remarks: 'We accordingly look upon the subterranean faunas as small ramifications which have penetrated into the earth from the geographically limited faunas of the adjacent tracts, and which, as they extended themselves into darkness, have been accommodated to surrounding circumstances. Animals not far remote from ordinary forms, prepare the transition from light to darkness. Next follow those that are constructed for twilight; and, last of all, those destined for total darkness, and whose formation is quite peculiar.' These remarks of Schiodte's it should be understood, apply not to the same, but to distinct species." - Charles Darwin

His best known publications were

• Genera og species of Danmarks Eleutherata at tjene som fauna for denne orden og som indledning til dens anatomie og historie (1841)
• Naturhistoriske bidrag til en beskrivelse of Grønland / af J. Reinhardt, J.C. Schiødte, O.A.L. Mørch, C.F. Lütken, J. Lange, H. Rink. Særskilt aftryk af tillæggene til "Grønland, geographisk og statistisk beskrevet," af H. Rink. 1857
• De metamorphosi eleutheratorum observationes : bidrag til insekternes udviklingshistorie / ved J. C. Schiødte.Kjøbenhavn Thieles Bogtrykkeri, 1861–72. online

In addition, he described numerous species of insects as well as the spider genus Liphistius.

Other sources

• Wolff, Torben (1993). "More than 200 years of crustacean research in Denmark". In Truesdale, Frank (ed.). History of Carcinology. CRC Press. pp. 211–212. ISBN 978-90-5410-137-6.
• Groll, E. K. (Hrsg.): Biografien der Entomologen der Welt : Datenbank. Version 4.15 : Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, 2010 [1]