Karl Holdhaus, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Karl Holdhaus

Austrian entomologist

Date of Birth: 21-Jan-1883

Place of Birth: Baden bei Wien, Lower Austria, Austria

Date of Death: 30-Jun-1975

Profession: zoologist, entomologist

Nationality: Austria

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Karl Holdhaus (21 January 1883 in Baden bei Wien – 30 June 1975) was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera.
He was Director of the Vienna Natural History Museum. Holdhaus worked on the Coleoptera of glacial refugia, postglacial range expansions and “Massifs de Refugium”.
He recognised that the distribution of blind euedaphic and troglobitic beetles is restricted to a well definable area in Europe, south of a line connecting Bordeaux, Lyon, the southern Alps, the Carpathians and the Black Sea.
This is the “Holdhaus line” - the northern distribution limit of beetles with very poor powers of dispersal, especially blind cave beetles.
Only two small areas with blind beetles are known north of this line the Jura and the Northeastern Alps).Also South of this line there are many endemic animal and These areas are the “Massifs de Refugium” of Chodat & Pampanini (1902).