Herman Strecker

Ferdinand Heinrich Herman Strecker (24 March 1836 in Philadelphia – 30 November 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania) was an American entomologist specialising in butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera).

His father, had trained as a sculptor in Europe, settled in Reading where he made and traded in marble sculptures.

The young Strecker showed great aptitude for this trade, starting to work at twelve years, and succeeding his father.

A polyglot, he traveled extensively, in particular in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America where he studied Aztec monuments and collected butterflies.

In spite of his limited resources, he published, from 1872 to 1878, Lepidoptera Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, Indigenous and Exotic, with Descriptions and Colored Illustrations.