Carl August Dohrn

Carl August Dohrn (27 June 1806 – 10 May 1892) was a German entomologist who was a founding member of the Stettin Entomological Society.

Born at Stettin (Szczecin, now Poland) Carl August was the son of Johanna Hüttern and Heinrich Dohrn, who was a wine and spice merchant, and had made the family fortune by refining and trading in sugar.

This wealth allowed Carl August to devote himself to his various hobbies; travelling, folk music and entomology.

He translated dramas by Calderon from Spanish and a collection of Swedish folks songs and became noted as a man of letters.

Frederick William IV of Prussia took an interest in his literary work and Dohrn's close friends included Felix Mendelssohn and Alexander von Humboldt.

His first published paper was in the Entomologische Zeitung for 1845 but he was an active entomologist long before this, since he had acted as Secretary to the Stettin Entomological Society from its foundation in 1839 and edited its journal.

A frequent visitor to London he was accompanied by the Lepidopterist, Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1852, by Carl Henrik Boheman in 1854 and by Hermann August Hagen in 1857.

Both the books and his insect collections were donated to the Stettin Museum but much of it was destroyed in World War II because of which several species that he described such as Dromica bertinae are treated as nomen dubium (the types having been lost).