Johann Baptist Fischer, born 1803 in Munich (Germany), died 30 May 1832 in Leiden (the Netherlands) was a German naturalist, zoologist and botanist, doctor and surgeon.

Biography

Fischer was the son of a Munich schoolmaster, also named Johann Baptist, and his wife Cäcilie Haimerl. His younger brother was Sebastian Fischer, who also became a physician and naturalist spending part of his career in Russia and then Egypt.[2]

J. B. Fisher was the assistant of the botanist Carl Ludwig Blume in the former national herbarium of Brussels. In 1826, he joined an expedition to Java, then a possession of the Dutch East Indies, and participated with Blume in writing the description of the species collected.[3] During the Belgian revolution of September 1830, he helped Philipp Franz von Siebold transferring herbarium specimens from Brussels to Leiden in the Netherlands.[4][5] Johann Baptist Fischer also devoted himself to the study of mammals, and he published in 1830 his Synopsis Mammalium.[1] He died at a young age from septic infection.[2]

Taxonomic descriptions

Johann Baptist Fischer described many species of plants, which were proven to be synonyms, as Agathosma desciscens (J.B.Fisch. 1832)[6] synonym for Agathosma bifida Bartl. & H.L.Wendl., 1824.

In his Synopsis Mammalium,[1] he also described a number of new mammalian species and subspecies.

Rodents

• Akodon azarae (J. Fischer, 1829), named in honor of the Spanish naturalist Félix de Azara[1]
• Geocapromys brownii (J. Fischer, 1829), the Jamaican hutia, named in honor of the Irish naturalist Patrick Browne[1]
• Megalomys desmarestii (J. Fischer, 1829), the muskrat of Martinique, an endemic rodent now extinct, and named in honor of the French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest.[1]

Primates

• Trachypithecus johnii (J. Fischer, 1829), the Nilgiri langur, a small monkey native to the south west of the India, named in honor of the missionary CS John.[1][7]

Bats

• Centronycteris maximiliani (J. Fischer, 1829), the hirsute bat, named in honor of the prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied[1]
• Pipistrellus rueppellii (J. Fischer, 1829), the Rüppell's pipistrelle, named in honor of the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell[1]
• Plecotus austriacus (J. Fischer, 1829), the grey long-eared bat.[1]

Carnivores

• Caracal caracal nubica (J. Fischer, 1829), the Nubian caracal[1]
• Genetta genetta senegalensis (J. Fischer, 1829), the Senegalese common genet.[1]

Marsupials

• Echymipera kalubu (J. Fischer, 1829), the common spiny bandicoot, a small marsupial of New Guinea.[1]

• The standard author abbreviation J.B.Fisch. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[8]

References

На других языках

[ru] Фишер, Иоганн Баптист