Johannes Bastiaan Corporaal

Johannes Bastiaan Corporaal (23 April 1880 – 28 May 1952) was a Dutch entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera. Corporaal was considered a world authority on the beetle family Cleridae.^[1]

Johannes Bastiaan Corporaal
Born	(1880-04-23)23 April 1880 The Hague, Netherlands
Died	28 May 1952(1952-05-28) (aged 72) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Occupation	Entomologist

Biography

Corporaal was born at The Hague on 23 April 1880.^[2][3] His parents were an Official, Gerard Cornelis Corporaal (also known as Cornelis Gerardus Korporaal) and Anna Corporaal (née van Hunsel), who were married on 21 June 1877.^[3][4]

Corporaal's early education was at the Technische Hogeschool in Delft; he then moved to Wageningen for studies at the National Agricultural School, hoping to go on to work in Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies).^[2] He received his Agricultural diploma on 5 July 1902.^[2]

In 1903 Corporaal traveled to Indonesia, where he worked first at Java and then at Sumatra^[2] as an assistant tobacco planter^[3] at plantations belonging to the company Senembah Maatschappij.^[2] From 1912 Corporaal was Manager of a tea and rubber plantation in Java.^[3] Corporaal's work involved using his agricultural and entomological training to try to combat crop pests, and he studied beetles in his spare time.^[2]

In April–June 1915 Corporaal collected several weevils from the family Anthribidae which he sent for identification to Karl Jordan at the Tring Museum in Hertfordshire, U.K.^[5]

Corporaal suffered from a period of ill-health circa 1915 which caused him to return to the Netherlands where he met his future wife, Annie van Rienderhoff.^[2] They were married at Penang. Malaysia on 22 August 1917.^[3] Corporaal had a five-year contract to work as an entomologist at the Dutch rubber-planter research station near Medan, Sumatra [Algemeene Vereeniging van Rubberplanters ter Oostkust van Sumatra (A.V.R.O.S.)].^[2][3] After Corporaal's contract ended in 1921 he and Annie returned to the Netherlands, settling in Amsterdam, where Corporaal took a job as an entomological curator at the Amsterdam Zoological Museum.^[2]

In 1928 Corporaal attended the fourth International Congress of Entomology in Ithaca, New York as a representative of the Amsterdam Zoological Museum and the Netherlands.^[6] He appears as attendee number 51 in the official Congress photograph.

Corporaal built up a personal collection of Cleridae specimens during his career which contained 1200 different types and forms, with around 17,000 specimens in total.^[2] After his death these were donated to the Amsterdam Zoological Museum.^[2]

Select publications

• Corporaal, J.B. "Notes systématiques et synonymiques sur les Clérides (2me communication sur les Clérides)", Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 67, pages 195-196 (1924)^[7]
• Corporaal, J.B.: "Remarks on some South African Cleridae in the British Museum (7th communication on Cleridae)", Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 69, pages 318-319 (1926)^[8]
• Corporaal, J.B.: "Further notes on Cleridae. (11th communication on Cleridae)", Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 76, pages 155-188 (1933)^[9]
• Corporaal, J.B.: "Notes on some Cleridae in the Hamburg Zoological Museum (21st Communication on Cleridae)", Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 84, pages 359-361 (1941)^[10]