ERICH M. HERING Briefe tiber Blattminierer Letters on Leaf Miners Selected, edited and annotated by KENNETH A. SPENCER 1968 DR. W. JUNK N.V. - PUBLISHERS - THE HAGUE ISBN-13: 978-94-010-3484-5 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-3482-1 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-3482-1 © Copyright 1968 by Dr. W. Junk n.v. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1989 CONTENTS Preface................................................ V Erich Martin Hering 1893-1967 .......................... VII Prof. Dr. Erich M. Hering - In memoriam ................ IX Letters to H. Buhr (1929-1967) .......................... I J. Letters to Klimesch (1933-1966) .......... ....... ... .... 101 Letter to Prof. Dr. E. Schiiz (1953) Letters to F. Groschke (1951-1955) ....................... 133 Letters to G. C. D. Griffiths (1955-1967) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Letters to K. A. Spencer (1951-1967) ..................... 177 Notes................................................. 340 Appendix A: Publications by Professor Hering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 7 Appendix B : Keys for the identification of the palaearctic species of the Genera Liriomyza and Phytomyza (Agromyzidae) . . . . . 365 Bestimrnungstabelle der paHiarktischen Liriomyza-Arten . . . . . 367 Bestimrnungstabelle der palaarktischen Phytomyza-Arten. . . . 383 Index. Part I: Insects, Personalities, Localities and General Subjects. . 427 Part II: Host-plants ..................................... 442 III PREFACE My association with Prof. Hering extends over the past seventeen years, and during this period I have visited him at his home on more than forty occasions and received over 300 letters from him. These letters contain much detailed entomological information. They also throw considerable light on Prof. Hering's personality and character and the background against which he worked. The publication of at least part of these letters as a final tribute to Prof. Hering has been in my mind for many years. This original idea has now been somewhat J. extended by the inclusion of a number ofletters to Dr. H. Buhr, Dr. Klimesch, Dr. F. Groschke and G. C. D. Griffiths, all of whom shared Prof. Hering's interest in leaf-miners. Although Dr. Buhr is primarily a botanist, with Hering's encour agement he has taken an active interest in leaf-miners throughout his career and his remarkable collecting becomes apparent from Hering's letters to him. For many years Prof. Hering has written between two and three thousand letters annually. It has obviously been possible to consider here only a very small proportion of these. From many of the longer letters only isolated paragraphs have been included. Use of italics in the letters was not entirely consistent and has been reproduced as used by Prof. Hering. Selection of the letters has been based primarily on their entomolo gical interest but numerous passages have also been included illustra ting in some way Hering's personal qualities. Most of the abbreviations used in the letters will be familiar at least to dipterists. The following, however, are those used in Hering's "Bestimmungstabellen der Blattminen ..." : M. - pupation in mine; E. - pupation on ground; os. - oberseitig (Mine); us. - unterseitig. Two Appendices have been included. Appendix A lists Prof. Hering's 404 publications and also 35 others of a more popular nature. Appendix B gives Identification Keys for the genera Liriomyza and Phytomyza, based on those prepared by Hendel but updated by Hering in 1955 to include the numerous new species described up to that time. K.A.S. v ERICH MARTIN HERING 1893-1967 Curriculum vitae 1893 Born loth November in Heinersdorf (Ost-Sternberg). 1898-19°8 Primary School at Giintersberg nr. Crossen (Oder). 1908-1913 Teachers' Training College, Bunzlau (Silesia) 1913-1914 Teacher and Organist at Kohlfurt and Lissa (Silesia) 1914-1918 Military Service on Russian Front. 19 I 6-19 I 8 Military Hospital in Berlin - during this time preparation for "Abitur" . 1917 Work in Department of Lepidoptera, Zoologisches Museum, Berlin under F. Karsch. 1918 Abitur as external student and one term study of philosophy. 1918-1921 Student in Berlin, Konigsberg and again in Berlin (Zoology: Heider, Kiikenthal; Botany: Haberland, Engler; Philosophy; Riehl, Dessoir). 1921 Qualified as Dr. phil. 192 I-I 95 7 Zoologisches Museum der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat (now Hum boldt-Universitat), as head of Department of Lepidoptera. Promotion to Professor. 1st October, officially retired. Died in Berlin, 18th August. Publications 404 scientific papers and books; also 35 popular-scientific articles (see Appendix A). Description of new species 21 86 new species were described below family level. Major collecting expeditions France, Holland, Switzerland, S. Spain, Canary Islands, Banat, Bessarabia, Sweden, Denmark, Abyssinia, Canada, Dalmatia, Austria and also in many areas of Germany. Participation in International Entomological Organisations Member: International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 195°-1964. World Academy of Art and Science. International Union of Biological Sciences of UNESCO. Honorary Member: Congress of Entomology (196o). Society of British Entomology. Awards and Honours Holder of Royal Bulgarian Order of Merit. Fabricius Medal of Deutsche Entomologische Gesellschaft. Royal Belgian Medal for Scientific Studies. 57 new scientific names have been dedicated to Prof. Hering, including Silliana Malaise, 1949 (sill in Swedish = a hering). VII PROF. DR. ERICH M. HERING - IN MEMORIAM Prof. Hering's place in history as a great entomologist is fully assured. Apart from his broad knowledge of the Macro-Lepidoptera of the world, he was the leading authority on many families of Micro-Lepi doptera, on the Trypetidae and Agromyzidae. His achievement as a taxonomist in describing over 2000 new species is itself substantial but this was incidental to his main interest, synthesised in his biological studies of leaf-miners. His outstanding personal qualities are probably less well known but were very apparent to all who knew him. Prof. Hering's official position was head of the Lepidoptera De partment in the Zoological Museum, Berlin and inevitably much of his early work was devoted to Macro-Lepidoptera. As early as 1916, when he bred his first Micro, Phyllocnistis labyrinthella (Bjerk) from Aspen (Populus tremula), he had taken an active interest in the leaf-mining Lepidoptera and many early papers deal with this group. His first paper on leaf-miners appeared in 1920, and his first descriptions of new species of Agromyzidae in the same year. One of his most ab sorbing interests was the indication of plant relationships given by the feeding preferences of insects and his first publication on this problem appeared in 1925. His study of this problem led him to acquire a degree of botanical knowledge almost unique in an entomologist. He attended the Botanical Congress in Stockholm in 1950 and on a number of occasions suggested changes in botanical classification based on his observations on the host selection of leaf-miners. In 1933 he decided to study the Trypetidae of the world, and over the next thirty years published more than 80 papers on this family on which he became the leading world authority. Prof. Hering's unique contribution to entomology was his spe cialised study of the leaf-mining habit of insects as practised by all four orders - Lepidoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. He built up a remarkable collection of leaf-mines which were classified botanically. A great part of this collection was unfortunately destroyed at the end of the war, but with undiminished enthusiasm he reconsti tuted it during the past twenty years, until finally at the end of 1966 it embraced leaf-mines of 11,310 insect species. Based on this collec tion, he produced identification keys to leaf-miners for all plant genera known in Europe. A first edition appeared in 1935-1937, but was largely destroyed at the outbreak of war. A second, revised and IX greatly expanded edition was published in three volumes in 1957. For many years work on the Agromyzidae in Europe was shared between Hendel in Vienna, who undertook most of the taxonomic study, de Meijere in Amsterdam, who described the larvae, and Hering who, in Berlin, concentrated on a biological approach, rearing species from their leaf-mines. This division of effort produced a great advance in our knowledge of the family, and culminated in Hendel's Monograph of the Agromyzidae, published between 1931 and 1936. After the war, with Hendel's death in 1936 and de Meijere's death in 1947, Hering was left to continue his study of this complex family alone. Throughout this same period Prof. Hering was a member of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, which in volved an immense amount of detailed research and correspondence. He was secretary of the Seventh International Congress of Entomolo gy in Berlin in 1938, and thereafter a permanent member of the Com mittee, attending the subsequent congresses in Amsterdam, Stock holm, Vienna, Montreal and London. He had been greatly looking forward to attending the Congress in Moscow in 1968, but this was not to be. This immense activity and productivity would be remarkable in a man in the best of health and enjoying all reasonable material com forts. In fact, since the end of the war, Prof. Hering suffered from increasing ill-health, and was subjected to privations and domestic blows which would have daunted any lesser man. He had been severely wounded on the Russian Front in the First World War, and parti cularly in the last ten years of his life suffered constant discomfort and pain in his injured right shoulder and arm, which frequently made normal relaxation and sleep impossible. From 1945 to 1947 almost the entire Berlin population was living only slightly above starvation level. I was in Berlin myself at this time, and well recall the exceptional ly severe winter of 1946/7 when many hundreds of people died from cold and starvation. During the last days of fighting in Berlin, German troops had occupied positions in Hering's garden, and when the Rus sians finally captured the area, Hering, his wife and younger daughter Tamara emerged from their shelter amid still-smoking German cartridges, and he was promptly arrested by the Russians and con demned to be shot. It was only at the last moment that Frau Dr. Hering, who is herself Russian by origin, was able to persuade the Russian Major in command to release him. The wall dividing Berlin x severely restricted Prof. Hering's work, and caused him substantial financial difficulties. Living in Dahlem in West Berlin, he was for a while completely cut off from his main collections and literature, and subsequently he was only allowed restricted access to the Museum in East Berlin on one day a month. On his retirement in 1957 he lost a substantial part of his normal pension, which was paid into a blocked account in East Berlin. His younger daughter Tamara married a television producer in 1961 and lived in East Berlin. In 1963 she died following complications in childbirth, cut off from both her parents in West Berlin. Dr. Groschke in Stuttgart, with whom Prof. Hering had a most affectionate relationship, as becomes very apparent from his letters to him, and whom he saw as his successor in the study of his beloved leaf-miners, died quite unexpectedly after a simple appendi citis operation in January, 1956. I visited Prof. Hering very shortly after the death both of Groschke and his daughter. He bravely con cealed his grief, but it was deep and lasting. It is a tribute to Hering's will-power and dedication to his work that he was able to surmount such material difficulties and physical and mental suffering, and con tinue with his productive work until a few weeks before his death. It may well be asked how it was possible for one man to achieve so much in a single lifetimes. The simple answer is that over a period of fifty years he crowded far more hours of work into each day than any normal person, and worked with an intensity and concentration of which few people are capable. Throughout most of his life he rose at 4.30, worked for an hour at home and commenced at the museum at 6.0, long before any other members of the scientific staff were pre sent. As a special dispensation he was permitted to leave comparably early, and continued working at home in his study until late at night. An interesting example of this early rising habit is mentioned by Hering in his letter of 31 Aug. 1953 to Groschke referring to the Copenhagen Congress of Zoology in 1953. The days from 9.0 a.m. until late at night were entirely filled with Congress matters; but by rising at 4.30 he was able to do three or four hour's collecting daily before breakfast. His greatest pleasure was in field work, and the travel restrictions around Berlin which cut him off from his favourite collecting localities depressed and saddened him. He frequently refers to this in his letters. It was fortunate that in this post-war period he was provided with such a constant supply of interesting leaf-mines collected by Dr. Buhr and Dr. Klimesch. This material represented an invaluable contribution XI towards the preparation of the keys to leaf-mines which was Hering's central activity at this time. Despite Hering's dedication to his work, he was well-informed on many aspects of day-to-day life, and took an active interest in current affairs. He was, in fact, the very reverse of the scientific recluse which one might have expected. Many aspects of his character and personali ty are clearly revealed in his letters. His overwhelming and warm hearted generosity is indicated time and time again. He liberally gave specimens from his collections, both of insects and of leaf-mines, to help younger workers, and above all he gave his time, so much of which was devoted to correspondence helping others rather than requesting information or help himself. His house was always open to any of his entomological friends, despite the modest living which was forced on him by political circumstances. The enthusiasm and passionate interest in his leaf-miners which are so apparent through out this letters are more typical of an amateur than a professional entomologist. He was totally uninfluenced by the artificiality and commercial pressures dominating so much oflife to-day, when success is all too frequently equated with material prosperity. Prof. Hering never for one moment departed from his own standards - of simpli city, modesty, generosity and intellectual honesty. It is my hope that this book, prepared as a final tribute to Prof. Hering, may in some slight measure add to the esteem in which he is held by all who knew him. It would be his wish that it might provide some stimulus and encouragement for the further study of leaf-mines by future entomologists. Kenneth A. Spencer XII