B. K. Tikader

Benoy Krishna Tikader
Born 1928
Jaidihi, Khulna
Died 12 August 1994(1994-08-12)
Occupation Zoologist

Benoy Krishna Tikader was an Indian arachnologist and zoologist and a leading expert on Indian spiders in his time. He was a member of the Zoological Survey of India and the author of the most comprehensive work on Indian spiders to date, Handbook of Indian Spiders first published in 1987. The book describes 40 families and 1066 species of India, many of which were discovered by Tikader himself. The handbook is a guide to all arachnids including scorpions, and not just spiders. He was also a popular scientific author in his native language of Bengali, and was the author of Banglar Makorsha (literally: "Bengal's spiders") for the layman.

Focus on eastern India

Working in the Zoological Survey of India based in Kolkata, Tikader was especially interested in the spiders of eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many of his nomenclatures thus bear names of places in eastern India as part of their specific scientific name - like andamanensis (from the Andaman Islands), bengalensis (from the region of Bengal, and dhakuriensis (from the neighbourhood of Dhakuria, in Kolkata, often based on the region of discovery or distribution.

Honours

He held PhD and DSc degrees from Calcutta University.[1]

Quite a few species are named in his honour, including six from one family. While being a testament to the quality and importance of his work, having multiple species named after one is not usual for scientists working in such areas of "dense phylogenies".

Fish:

Spiders:

Important publications

References

  1. ↑ Bose, Anjali (editor), 1996/2004, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol II, (in Bengali), p217, ISBN 81-86806-99-7
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