Johan August Wahlberg

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Johan August Wahlberg (9 October 1810 Lagklarebäck, Sweden - 6 March 1856 Lake Ngami, Bechuanaland) was a Swedish naturalist and explorer.

Wahlberg started studying chemistry at the university of Uppsala in 1829, and later forestry, agronomy and natural science, graduating from the Institute of Forestry in 1834. In 1832 he joined Professor Carl Henrik Boheman, a famous entomologist, on a collecting trip to Norway. In 1833 and 1834 he travelled in Sweden and Germany on forestry research projects. He joined the Office of Land Survey and was appointed an engineer in 1836, becoming an instructor at the Land Survey College.

He travelled in southern Africa between 1838 and 1856, sending thousands of natural history specimens back to Sweden. He was exploring the headwaters of the Limpopo River when he was killed by a wounded elephant.

He is commemorated in the Wahlberg's Eagle Aquila wahlbergi (Sundevall 1851), Wahlberg's Honeyguide Prodotiscus regulus (Sundevall 1850), Wahlberg's Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus, Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat Epomophorus wahlbergi, and a tree Entada wahlbergi.

[edit] Works

• with Wallengren, H. D. J.. Kafferlandets Dag-fjärilar, insamlade åren 1838--1845. Lepidoptera Rhopalocera, in Terra Caffrorum. Annis 1838-1845. K. svenska VetenskAkad. Handl. 2(4): 5--55.(1857). [in Swedish]
• with Wallengren, H. D. J. (1864). Heterocera-Fjärilar, samlade i Kafferlandet. K. svenska VetenskAkad. Handl. 5(4): 1-83.(1864) [in Swedish]

Wahlberg,s South African Coleoptera were described by Carl Henrik Boheman and O.J. Fahraeus-

• Boheman, C.H. (1851). Insecta Caffrariae annis 1838-1845 a J.A. Wahlberg collecta. Coleoptera. Holmiae : Fritze & Norstedt Vol. 1 8 + 625 pp.
• Fahraeus, O.J. in Boheman, C.H. (1851). Insecta Caffrariae annis 1838-1845 a J.A. Wahlberg collecta. Coleoptera. Holmiae : Fritze & Norstedt Vol. 1 pp. 299-625