Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper

Encouraged to abandon his theology course by his professor of botany Casimir Christoph Schmidel (1718–1792) Eugen Esper, instead, took instruction in natural history.

He obtained his doctorate of philosophy at the university of Erlangen in 1781 with a thesis entitled De varietatibus specierum in naturale productis.

He was the author of a series of booklets entitled Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen which were published between 1776 and 1807.

These were richly illustrated; minerals, birds, plants, shells and insects being presented on 438 hand-coloured plates.

[citation needed] The review of entomology, Esperiana, Buchreihe zur Entomologie, created in 1990, commemorates his name and work.