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Anders Christian Jensen-Haarup was born January 8th, 1863, in Nim, near Horsens, Denmark. He became a teacher in 1885 but is better known for his entomological production, covering bugs, beetles, and several other orders of insects. In September 1904 he traveled to the province of Mendoza in Argentina to collect and study insects. A year later he returned to Denmark to arrange his many specimens and had a large part of these distributed to specialists for identification. In the autumn of 1906 Jensen-Haarup left Denmark once again for Argentina, this time accompanied by his friend Peter Jørgensen. Jensen-Haarup passed away in Silkeborg on January 30th, 1934. |
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Peter ("Pedro") Jørgensen from Sønderby, Denmark, was born August 3rd, 1870, and had during 1892 acquired tuberculosis and was until his death affected by this disease. His trip with Jensen-Haarup to Argentina was sparked by the humid climate of Denmark; instead he desired to live in the much drier Andean climate. Jørgensen continued residing in South America until his death. He eventually settled down in Villa Rica, Paraguay, where he dedicated his life to farming of his small property and to his entomological research. His life ended tragically in June 1937 when he was murdered. His last name would often appear on German or Spanish papers as Jörgensen, the German form of his name, but should correctly be spelled Jørgensen. |
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Both naturalists would publish accounts on their adventures from the out-back of Argentina a century ago, but their main accomplishment was a major insect collection that was either sold (e.g., last page of Friese, 1908) to finance their travel expenses or sent worldwide to specialists for identification. Heinrich Friese of Germany identified and described 143 new taxa of argentine bees collected in part by these pioneers in two papers (1906, 1908, see below). Friese would describe additional bees later from their expeditions, as would Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell. The Danes would also make revisionary works on their collections themselves and publish papers listing floral records or behavioral observations of the bees in either Danish, German, English, or Spanish (see below). Jensen-Haarup published a series of popular accounts of his trip to Argentina describing the flora and fauna, but also wrote regular travel notes on all of his encounters in the exotic country. His 15 popular travel accounts were published in the Danish natural history magazine "Flora og fauna", and part of his diaries were edited into books as well (I Sydamerika: Skildringer fra det vestlige Argentina. København. 1906. 128 pp. and Af min sydamerikanske Dagbog (1904-07). Silkeborg. 1911. 112 pp.). Jørgensen was the travel companion of Jensen-Haarup in the beginning, and published two brief accounts in the "Flora og Fauna" magazine. Later he settled down in Paraguay and continued publishing on all insect orders and eventually also became a plant collector for several museum collections in the US. His scientific production was wide, and included not only the below papers on bees and related insects from Argentina and Paraguay. The types of the bees described in their papers were divided among museums. Jensen-Haarup's collection went to the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen along with some of the syntypical material described by Friese. The syntypes (?) of Cockerell went to both Copenhagen and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Jørgensen's later material is presumably in Argentina and Paraguay, although the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen include collections from his few years in Argentina. |
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Travel accounts from Argentina from Flora og Fauna
Jensen-Haarup:
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Jørgensen
Photograph of Jørgensen from 1933, Paraguay, by Poul ("Pablo") Schouboe, a friend, painter, and fellow countryman in South America. |
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Below a map of the collecting localities mentioned by Jensen-Haarup and Jørgensen in Mendoza, San Juan, and San Luis of Argentina. One of their main localities was Chacras deÊCoria which had a large population of Danish immigrants at the turn of the century [Reload page if map not showing up].
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Site provided by Claus Rasmussen The term of copyright in the US for the above works has expired (i.e., earlier than 1923) and the papers are now in the public domain and can therefore be made freely available.
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