Günter Schmidt


Günter E. W. Schmidt was a German arachnologist and author of a standard German work on tarantulas, Die Vogelspinnen. He has been described as one of the fathers of German arachnology.
He studied biology and mostly worked in the pharmaceutical industry until his retirement. In 1975, he graduated with a PhD thesis on the arachnid fauna of the Canary Islands. From 1986, his scientific work was concentrated mainly on tarantulas. The World Spider Catalog lists 234 species names of which he is the author or co-author, of which 69 are in the family Theraphosidae.

Books

His books include:
  • ; followed by further editions, including

Species names

Several species names of spiders honour Günter Schmidt, including:Haplopelma schmidti von Wirth, 1991 Aphonopelma schmidti Smith, 1995 Cyrtopholis schmidti Rudloff, 1996