Walter Oliver Cernohorsky


Walter Oliver Cernohorsky, often referred to as W. O. Cernohorsky, was a Czech malacologist based in New Zealand. Cernohorsky developed an interest in malacology while working as the chief surveyor at the Emperor Gold Mine at Vatukoula, Fiji, publishing scholarly papers on molluscs from 1964. From 1969 to 1988, Cernohorsky worked as the malacologist for Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Cernohorsky became a leading authority on the mollusc families Mitridae, Nassariidae, Terebridae and Costellariidae, and described over 70 species, as well as the genera Dibaphimitra, Domiporta and Neocancilla.

Early life

Cernohorsky was born on 30 June 1927 in Brno, then a part of Czechoslovakia, to Jan Černohorský, a hotelier, and Maria. Both of his parents died when he was seven years old, after which he was cared for by his older brother and sister-in-law. Cernohorsky experienced Czechoslovakia under German occupation during World War II, during which his family's hotel was requisitioned, and Cernohorsky's uncle, an officer in the Czech army, was executed by the German Army.
After the war, Cernohorsky studied architecture at university in Czechoslovakia. An outspoken person, Cernohorsky fled Czechoslovakia by train in 1948, after being warned that communist authorities were searching for him. Due to Cernohorsky's language abilities, he was employed as a translator by the United States Army, living in Germany and Italy.
In 1949, Cernohorsky left Italy, travelling to Australia as a refugee, where he worked in factories, brick-works, in Queensland cutting sugar cane and as a surveyor. While working on the Great Barrier Reef in the same year, Cernohorsky happened to discover a chambered nautilus, which inspired his interest in mollusc shells. Cernohorsky's interest in photography led to an interest in photographing shells, after being impressed at the vivid colours that could be captured in Kodachrome slides. Over time, Cernohorsky's passion for photography waned in favour of focusing on shell collecting. After his first two years in Australia, which Cernohorsky described as "forced labour" for the Australian government, he began working at the Golden Plateau Mine in Cracow, Queensland.
Cernohorsky moved to Fiji in 1953, where he became the chief surveyor at the Emperor Gold Mine at Vatukoula. The following year, Cernohorsky began pursuing his passion for tropical molluscs, He became an honorary malacologist at the Fiji Museum, where he met Franz Alfred Schilder, who mentored Cernohorsky in the scientific practices of malacology. Cernohorsky later became the honorary curator of conchology at the Fiji Museum.
An early major discovery of Cernohorsky's was specimens of Blasicrura summersi in the waters surrounding Fiji; extending the range for a species which had previously been considered endemic to Tonga. While living in Fiji, Cernohorsky learnt how to free dive in order to collect shells, and became a member of both the Hawaiian Malacological Society and the Fiji Shell Club, writing for both organisations' publications, Hawaiian Shell News and Fiji Shell News.

Career

Cernohorsky became a member of the Malacological Society of Australia in 1964, and began publishing scientific articles on malacology in the same year. In 1967, Cernohorsky published Marine Shells of the Pacific, a compendium of common marine shells found across the Pacific Ocean. Cernohorsky released a second volume of the work in 1972, which described approximately 600 shells of gastropods, molluscs and cephalopods. In 1968, he designed three shell-themed stamps issued in Fiji.
In 1967, Cernohorsky was appointed as the conchologist of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, continuing to work as the chief surveyor of the Emperor Gold Mine until 1968. Prior to starting at the museum, he travelled to Washington D.C. in 1968, where he held a six-month research associateship at the Department of Mollusks of the National Museum of Natural History. Cernohorsky arrived in New Zealand in early February 1969, began his role at the museum immediately after arriving on 3 February 1969. Later that year on 16 July 1969, the museum changed Cernohorsky's title from museum conchologist to museum malacologist.
As a part of his work, Cernohorsky took field trips to Pacific islands, and took part in the Royal Society of New Zealand's 1977 South Pacific Expedition to the Lau Islands with entomologist Keith Wise. In 1981, Cernohorsky undertook field work in Australia, and in 1983 spent two weeks at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, researching Terebridae with malacologist Twila Bratcher. In 1983, Cernohorsky travelled to Portugal to advise on the establishment of a malacology museum.
Cernohorsky and Powell's work led the Auckland War Memorial Museum to become a centre for malacological research, with Cernohorsky becoming a world authority on the mollusc families Mitridae, Nassariidae, Terebridae and Costellariidae. He actively published articles in the Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum, and published two volumes of the Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum, Systematics of the families Mitridae and Volutomitridae and Systematics of the family Nassariidae . Cernohorsky also became the facilitator of the Auckland Shell Club, the conchology club originally established as a section of the Auckland Institute and Museum.
In 1978, Cernohorsky published a monograph on the subfamily Mitrinae. Two years later, Cernohorsky published the third volume of Marine Shells of the Pacific, with the name Tropical Pacific Marine Shells, adding descriptions of an additional 600 species. In collaboration with American malacologist Twila Bratcher, Cernohorsky published Living Terebras of the World, a comprehensive review of the genus Terebra, covering 268 taxa.
Cernohorsky also worked as a philatelist for Auckland Museum as a secondary role, administering the museum's collection of stamps. He retired from the Auckland War Memorial Museum on 13 May 1988.

Later life

After retiring from Auckland War Memorial Museum, Cernohorsky moved to Terranora, New South Wales, later returning to New Zealand to live in Pakuranga, Auckland. Cernohorsky pursued his passions for heraldry, genealogy of aristocracy and digital photography during retirement. He was a longstanding member of the Heraldry Society of New Zealand, publishing articles in the New Zealand Armorist from 1996 to 2004. Cernohorsky became a member of l'Association Conchyliologique de Nouvelle-Caledonie in 1990. Cernohorsky contributed to the editing of the fourth edition of Powell's Native Animals of New Zealand, released in 1998.
Cernohorsky died on 23 September 2014 at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at Purewa Cemetery, Auckland.

Recognition and legacy

Eight molluscan species have been named after Cernohorsky:
Cyllene cernohorskyi, I. cernohorskyi, M. cernohorskyi ''N. cernohorskyi and V. cernohorskyi were named in Cernohorsky's honour; N. cernohorskyi specifically due to Cernohorsky's pioneering work on the Nassariidae family. A. cernohorskyi and Carinapex cernohorskyi were named due to Cernohorsky examining the first known shells of their respective species, and for H. cernohorskyi, collecting the shells which first came to the attention of the researcher's attention.
Conus cernohorskyi, also named in Cernohorsky's honour, has since been synonymised with Conus metcalfii''.

Personal life

Cernohorsky met his wife Irene in Australia while working at the Golden Plateau Mine in Cracow, Queensland. The pair married in 1953. Together they had two children, both born in the mid to late 1950s. While living in Fiji, Cernohorsky would give money to his children for any shells that they found. Cernohorsky's wife Irene died in August 2012.

Taxa identified by Cernohorsky

The following taxa have since been synonymised: