Ludwig Ganglbauer

Ludwig Ganglbauer , was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera of Europe.

Life and work

Ganglbauer became interested in insects during early childhood. Educated at the Schottengymnasium in Vienna, he later obtained a teaching certificate from the University of Vienna, and then taught high school for a few years. He subsequently took a job at the Wiener Hofmuseum. He encouraged a circle of entomologists in Vienna that met on the first and third Thursdays of each month at a restaurant.
In 1881, he co-founded the journal Wiener Entomologische Zeitung. He became director of the Department for Zoology at the Vienna Natural History Museum in 1906. Ganglbauer wrote Die Käfer von Mitteleuropa, 4 vols., 1892-1904 which was unfinished at his death, but is still widely read by entomologists. Ganglbauer enjoyed puns and when his friends Breit and Tax collected a new species of Anophthalmus in Transylvania they suggested that it be named Anophthalmus ''taxi'' but since that name was preoccupied Ganglbauer suggested "autotaxi" which would also indicate that Tax had collected it himself.