Hans Fruhstorfer (1866—1922)

Hans Fruhstorfer was born in Passau, Germany on 7 March 1866. He was a man of genial disposition and of untiring energy and his boundless entomological enthusiasm was devoted almost entirely to the butterflies. He had (during the beginning of the last century) produced a countless number of papers on that subject and written a very large proportion of the butterflies of Seitz’ Exotic Macrolepidoptera, largely based on the results of his own collecting trips abroad. Although his name will always remain associated with the butterflies he had described his work contains unfortunately many errors — he worked too fast to allow himself time to check his detail — and in the matter of his racial names many without doubt will have to be discarded.

He was a self-made man whose commercial success as a collector and dealer in butterflies enabled him to take an early retirement and enjoy financial independence until the end of his life. He died in München on 9 April 1922 after an unsuccessful operation for cancer. He was only in his fifty-fifth year.

The largest proportion of his collection reached the Natural History Museum (BMNH) in London. Part of the Nymphalidae types is deposited in the collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, the rest is scattered over a number of museums and private collections.