The following is a collection of biographies of carcinologists who have contributed to the present day knowledge of freshwater crab systematics. Their major publications can be found in the searchable bibliography. This historical information has been researched and compiled by Dr. Rafael Lemaitre, Rose Gulledge and Molly Ryan of the US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (NMNH, Dept. Systematic Biology-Section IZ). Biographies of carcinologists who work on other groups of crabs can also be found at this link.

AFRICAN FRESHWATER CRAB CARCINOLOGISTS

Heinrich Balss

Keppel Harcourt Barnard

Richard Bott

Louis-Eugene Bouvier

William Thomas Calman

Fenner Albert Chace

Colosi

Neil Cumberlidge

Isabella Gordon

Franz Hilgendorf

Johannes Govertus de Man

Alphonse Milne-Edwards

Henri Milne-Edwards

Theodore Monod

Nobili

Mary Rathbun

EUROPE AND ASIAN FRESHWATER CRABS

Alfred William Alcock

Heinrich Balss

Richard Bott

Louis-Eugene Bouvier

Colosi

Ai Yun Dai

Johannes Govertus de Man

Stanley Wells Kemp

Franz Hilgendorf

Lipke Bijdeley Holthuis

Alphonse Milne-Edwards

Henri Milne-Edwards

Phaibul Naiyanetr

Peter K. L. Ng

Nobili

Mary Jane Rathbun

NEW WORLD

Fernando Alvarez

Richard Bott

Fenner Albert Chace

Celio Magalahaes

Alphonse Milne-Edwards

Henri Milne-Edwards

Gerhard Pretzmann

Gilberto Rodriguez

Alfred Smalley

Mary Jane Rathbun

Alfred William Alcock 23 June 1859 – 24 March 1933
British carciniologist. Medical entomologist and Professor of Medical Zoology, University of London. Born in Bombay, lived many years in India. Surgeon-Naturalist to the Indian Marine Survey on the Survey Ship "Investigator". Superintendent of the Indian Museum. Produced invaluable works on Indian decapods, summarized in his "Descriptive catalogues" published by the Indian Museum, and "Illustrations of the Zoology of the R.I.M.S. ‘Investigator’".

Heinrich Balss 3 June 1886 – 17 September 1957
German zoologist, chief conservator of the Zoologische Staatssammlung, University of Munich. Outstanding figure in the history of decapod systematics, and well known specialist on higher Crustacea. His most significant works were the sections on decapods and stomatopods in Kükenthal & Krumbach’s "Handbuch der Zoologie", and in Bronn’s "Klassen und Ordnungen des Tierreichs".

Keppel Harcourt Barnard 31 March 1887 - 22 September 1964

British and South African carcinologist. Educated at Cambridge University, England, obtained the Natural Science Tripos degree in Botany, Geology and Zoology, then took a law degree at Inner Temple, London. Became Marine Biologist of the South African Museum in Cape Town, and Director 1946-1956. Published about 230 papers and books on South African fishes, insects, and crustaceans (amphipods, isopods, decapods, stomatopods, copepods and cirripedes). Did pioneering work on isolated mountain peak faunas of the South West Cape ranges.

Louis-Eugène Bouvier 9 April 1856 – 14 January 1944
French naturalist and comparative morphologist. He studied pharmacy, botany, and obtained his doctoral degree at École Pratique des Hautes Études. Professor of Zoology (1894) at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, where he was Chair of the entomology lab from 1896 until his retirement in 1931. Participated in famous deep-sea expeditions to the eastern Atlantic on board the "Hirondelle" and "Princesse Alice". Published more than 500 papers on madreporarians, mollusks, onycophorans, crustaceans, insects, merostomaceans, arachnids, vertebrates, and zoological philosophy. Best known works on crustaceans are his studies on the evolution of lithodid crabs (1894, 1895, 1897), the comparative anatomy of macrurans, brachyurans, and anomurans (1891), monographs of abyssal decapod crustaceans (1890 to 1892, some with his admired teacher A. Milne- Edwards), atyid shrimps (1924), and his "Décapodes Marcheurs" (1940).

William Thomas Calman 29 December 1871 – 29 September 1952
British carciniologist. Assistant curator of Crustacea and Pycnogonida, and Deputy Keeper, Department of Zoology, British Museum. One of the most influential figures in the history of carcinology. Author of the Crustacea volume in Lankester’s (1909) "Treatise on Zoology", where he introduced the divisions Peracarida, Eucarida, and Hoplocarida, and proposed the concept of a generalized Malacostracan known as "caridoid facies". Author of the classic popular book "The Life of Crustacea" (1911), as well as pivotal works on fossil and Recent Syncarida (notably Anaspides), cirripedes, atyid shrimps, and Pycnogonida. Calman was also an authority on trilobites, and was interested in primitive arthropods and their phylogeny.

Fenner Albert Chace, Jr. 5 October 1908 -
American specialist on caridean shrimps and other decspods including freshwater crabs. Zoologist Emeritus, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts. Obtained his Ph.D. in 1934 from Harvard University. He was Assistant Curator of Invertebrates (1934-1942) and Curator of Crustacea (1942-1946), at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Joined the staff of the U.S. National Museum in 1946 where he worked until his retirement in 1978.

Johannes Govertus de Man 2 May 1850 – 19 January 1930
Dutch naturalist born in Middleburg, Province of Zeeland, Holland. Studied natural history at Leiden University obtaining his doctoral degree in 1872 on a thesis on birds and amphibians. His thesis was his only work on vertebrates as he devoted his life to the study of Crustacea Decapoda and Stomatopoda, and free-living nematode worms. In 1872 he entered the Leiden Museum as an assistant, and later was curator of Invertebrata from 1875 to 1883. He published numerous works on decapods and other groups including the "Siboga Expedition Reports".

Isabella Gordon 18 May 1901 – 11 May 1988
British carciniologist. Obtained her Ph.D. degree (1926) from the University of London, awarded D.Sc. (1928) by the University of Aberdeen, and received the Order of the British Empire in 1961. In her early years she studied echinoderms, and made working visits to the U.S.(Hopkins Marine Station, California; Woods Hole, Massachusetts; U.S. National Museum, Washington D.C.). Assistant Keeper of Crustacea at the British Museum (Natural History) (Now The Natural History Museum, London) until her retiremen in 1966.

Lipke Bijdeley Holthuis 21 April 1921 -
Dutch carciniologist. Born in Probolingo, eastern Java, Indonesia. Obtained Doctor in Science degree from Leiden University (1946). Appointed assistant curator of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (now Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum), Leiden in 1941, where he retired as Senior Curator of Crustacea in 1986. The most productivecrustacean biologist of the 20th century, has published more than 400 papers and books on shrimps, lobsters, crabs, stomatopods, isopods, barnacles, amphipods, mysidaceans, general natural history, history of carcinology, and nomenclature.

Stanley Wells Kemp 14 June 1882 – 16 May 1945
Graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a "Senior Moderatorship in Natural History" and Gold Medal (1903). His experience in entomology led to an interest in marine Arthropoda, especially the Decapoda, on which he published many seminal papers, such as "Decapoda Natantia of the coasts of Ireland" (1910). In 1910 he was appointed Senior Assistant Superintendent in the Zoological and Anthropological section of the Indian Museum, Calcutta (later the Zoological Survey of India), where he found the crustacean collections assembled by J. Wood-Mason and A. Alcock, and proceeded to publish a series of papers on the Caridea as "Notes on Decapod Crustacea in the Indian Museum" (1910-1925).

Henri Milne Edwards 23 October 1800 - 29 July 1885
French carciniologist. Head chair of Crustacea, Arachnida and Insecta, and also of Mammals and Birds, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Best known for his multi-volume work considered the first breviary of carcinologists: "Histoire naturelle des Crustacés" (1834-1840), where he named 1400 species and 350 genera. First to propose idea that the crustacean body is arranged in series of homologous segments each with a pair of appendages. Father of Alphonse Milne-Edwards.

Alphonse Milne-Edwards 13 October 1836 - 21 April 1900
French carcinologist, succeeded his father (H. Milne Edwards) as chair of Mammals and Birds, and became director of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Studied fossil crustaceans, and published many works documenting the diversity and morphology of decapods, mostly Brachyura and Anomura, from classic exploratory expeditions conducted on ships such as the "Travailleur", "Talisman", and the "Blake".

Théodore André Monod 9 April 1902 – 22 November 2000
French naturalist, marine zoologist, botanist, geologist, archaeologist, pacifist and spiritualist. Received his doctoral degree from the University of Paris in 1922, when he began a long association with the Paris Museum of Natural History, first as assistant, then as professor in 1942, and as honorary professor since 1974. In 1938 founded the French Institute for Black Africa in Dakar, Senegal, serving as its first director until 1965. Worked with A. Piccard in developing the first bathyscaph, making a dive of more than 1200 m off the coast of Dakar. Of his more than 600 publications, many were on Crustacea. Most notable were: "Les Gnathiidae" (1926), "Hippidea and Brachyura ouest-africains" (1956), "Glossaire carcinologique" (1971), "Taxonomy and evolution of Thermobaenacea" (1988), and his contributions to the "Traité de Zoologie" (1996, 1999). Spent much of his lifetime studying the natural life of the Sahara, developing a mystical relationship with the desert. Over seven decades he logged 5200 km by foot and camel over the Saharan sands.

Mary Jane Rathbun 11 June 1860 – 14 April 1943
American carcinologist. Ascended from "copyist" to assistant curator in charge of the Department of Marine Invertebrates (now Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)., U.S. National Museum. Prodigiously productive, considerably advanced knowledge of fossil and Recent decapod crustaceans of the world, describing 1147 new species, 63 genera, and 5 higher categories. Best known for her unparalleled, monumental 4-volume monograph of New World brachyuran crabs, and a treatise on freshwater crabs.