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Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger

German entomologist and zoologist

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Biography

Illiger was the son of a merchant in Braunschweig. He studied under the entomologist Johann Hellwig, and later worked on the zoological collections of Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg. He was educated at the University of Helmstedt and at Gottingen. He was unable to pursue medical studies due to tuberculosis. Illiger was invited to Berlin by Alexander von Humboldt and he became professor and director of the "zoological museum" (which is the Natural History Museum of Berlin in the present day) from its formation in 1810 until his death three years later from tuberculosis.

He was the author of Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium (1811), which was an overhaul of the Linnaean system. It was a major influence on the adoption of the concept of the family. He also edited the Magazin für Insektenkunde, widely known as "Illiger's Magazine". This journal would lead him to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1806.

In 1811 he introduced the taxonomic order Proboscidea for elephants, the American mastodon and the woolly mammoth. He also described the subspecies Odobenus rosmarus divergens, commonly known as the Pacific walrus. He created the order Sirenia based on his opinion that the manatee appeared like a mermaid. Illiger's macaw (Primolius maracana; Vieillot, 1816) and Illiger's saddle-back tamarin (Leontocebus illigeri (Pucheran, 1845)) commemorate his name. The botanical genus Illigera (family Hernandiaceae) also bears his name.

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