Arnold Förster


Arnold Förster was a German entomologist, who worked mainly on Coleoptera and Hymenoptera.

Life

Arnold Förster, who was born on 20 January 1810 in Aachen, Germany, where he died on 12 August 1884. He was Oberlehrer, or upper teacher, in Aachen for his entire adult life. He worked ceaselessly on entomology paying particular attention to Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. He was a pioneering author on Hymenoptera.

Work

Selection
Förster’s Coleoptera und Homoptera: Cicadina and some of his Hymenoptera, Pimplinae und Ophioninae are in the Natural History Museum of Berlin; his Tenthredinidae, Ichneumonidae and Apidae are in Munich State Museum; Proctotrupidae and Chalcididae and the rest of the Ichneumonidae are in the Natural History Museum, Vienna. The rest of Förster’s insects; Sphegidae; Diptera.
Förster’s notebooks contain keys and descriptions, mostly of genera of Hymenoptera, almost entirely the Ichneumonidae are in the Smithsonian Institution. They are written in German, Greek, and Latin and contain unpublished information. Some refer to the Irish Entomologist Alexander Henry Haliday.