Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann Explained

Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann
Birth Date:	31 October 1881
Birth Place:	Hamburg, Germany
Death Date:	3 July 1938
Death Place:	Limón, Costa Rica
Nationality:	German
Fields:	Entomology

Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann, more usually known as Ferdinand Nevermann (31 October 1881 – 3 July 1938) was a German entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera.

Biography

Nevermann was born in Hamburg on 31 October 1881. His parents were Johann Joachim Heinrich Nevermann and Johanna Henriette Nevermann [''née'' Meier].^[1]

Nevermann spent much of his working life in Costa Rica, where he was a resident from about 1909.^[2] He owned a banana plantation called the Hamburg Farm near the Reventazón River at Ebene, Limón^[3] (near the modern town of Cairo^[4]), and was a professor at the National School of Agriculture.

Nevermann married Annie Rownd Deters (1888-1984) in 1909, and they had four children.^[5]

The Dunn's Road Guarder snake, Crisantophis nevermanni (Dunn, 1937), was given its specific name by Emmett Reid Dunn (1894-1956) in honour of Nevermann.^[6]

In June 1938 Nevermann invited his friend, the entomologist Alexander Bierig (1884-1963), to stay with him on his plantation. On the night of 30 June, while out collecting insects, Nevermann and Bierig were accidentally shot by an American hunter^[7] passing through the area, who had mistaken them for an animal. Nevermann died of his injuries in the hospital at Limón on 3 July 1938.^[8] Bierig was shot in the shoulder, but survived.

in 1941 Nevermann's collection of Costa Rican Coleoptera was accessioned by the U.S. National Museum.^{[9] [10]} It comprised 33,000 specimens including representatives of 2,800 species, with Types of around 400 species, 10,000 Coleoptera that were unidentified plus Nevermann's field notes and observations.^[11]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann in the Hamburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1901 . 25 March 2023 . ancestry.co.uk.
2. Web site: New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Passenger Lists, 1813-1963 for Ferdinand Nevermann . 25 March 2023 . ancestry.co.uk.
3. Web site: Gnomidolon costaricense: Martins, 1962: Cerambycidae: Coleoptera: Insecta: Arthropoda [specimen label with Hamburg farm location] ]. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
4. Platnick . Norman I . Berniker . Lily . Víquez . Carlos . 22 December 2014 . A new goblin spider genus of the Zyngoonops group from Costa Rica, with notes on Coxapopha (Araneae, Oonopidae) . American Museum Novitates . 3820 . 2–3 . Biodiversity Heritage Library.
5. Web site: Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann . 26 March 2023 . ancestry.co.uk.
6. Book: Beolens . Bo . The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles . Watkins . Michael . Grayson . Michael . Johns Hopkins University Press . 2011 . 189.
7. Beebe . William . October 1938 . Forty Bays: Along the West Coast of Central America the Department of Tropical Research Again Has Dipped Its Nets . Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society . XLI . 5 . 154.
8. Web site: Hilje . Luka . 13 October 2022 . La híbrida y portentosa obra de Alexander Bierig ¿Entomólogo o pintor? ¡Los dos en uno! . 25 March 2023.
9. Rehn . James A G . 1942 . Note on the Genus Bertoniella (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Agraeciinae) . Entomological News . 53 . 246 . Biodiversity Heritage Library.
10. Saylor . Lawrence Webster . 1943 . Synoptic revision of the testaceipennis group of the beetle genus Phyllophaga . Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences . 33 . 109 . Biodiversity Heritage Library.
11. Book: Wetmore, Alexander . Report on the Progress and Condition of the United States National Museum for the Year Ended June 30, 1941 . United States Government Printing Office . 1942 . Washington . 79.