Johann Baptist Fischer

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