Maximilian Perty

Josef Anton Maximilian Perty (17 September 1804, Ornbau – 8 August 1884, Bern) was a German naturalist and entomologist. He was a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Bern.^[1] His first name is sometimes spelled as "Joseph".

Maximilian Perty
Born	Maximilian Perty (1804-09-17)17 September 1804
Died	8 August 1884(1884-08-08) (aged 79)

He studied natural sciences and medicine in Landshut, earning his medical doctorate in 1826. Afterwards, he obtained his PhD at Erlangen with a thesis on a previously unknown species of beetle,^[1] and in 1831 became privat-docent of zoology and general natural history at the University of Munich. From 1833 to 1876, he was a professor at the University of Bern.^[2][3]

He conducted investigative studies of arthropods collected by Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius from an expedition in Brazil.^[1][3] In 1862, the botanical genus Pertya was named in his honor by Carl Heinrich "Bipontinus" Schultz.^[2]

Works

• Observationes nonnulae in Coleoptera Indiae orientalis, München (1831).^[1]
• Delectus Animalium Articulatorum quae in itinere per Brasiliam Annis MDCCCXVII – MDCCCXX Iussu et Auspiciis Maximiliani Josephi I. Bavariae Regis Augustissimi, percato collegerunt Dr J. B. de Spix et Dr. C. F. Ph. de Martius. (1830-1834).
• Zur Kenntniss kleinster Lebensformen: nach Bau, Funktionen, Systematik, mit Specialverzeichniss der in der Schweiz beobachteten. pp. 1-228, pls I-XVII. Bern: Verlag von Jent & Reinert.
• Die mystischen Erscheinungen in der menschlichen Natur. Leipzig, (2nd edition 1872, 2 vols.) (1861).
• Über das Seelenleben der Tiere (Leipzig und Heidelberg, 2. 1865: new edition 1876).
• Die Natur im Licht philosophischer Anschauung (Leipzig und Heidelberg) (1869).
• Erinnerungen aus dem Leben eines Natur- und Seelenforschers des 19. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig und Heidelberg) (1879).^[3]

Collections

Perty's collections are divided between the University of Bern and the Zoologische Staatssammlung München