Johann Georg Wagler

Johann Georg Wagler (1800 to 1832) was a German herpetologist and ornithologist, born in Nuremberg. He began his scientific research at the University of Erlangen in 1818 and in 1819 became assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, whose Brazilian collections he worked on and with whom he published books on Brazilian reptiles. He took a doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1820, gave lectures in zoology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München after it moved to Munich, and in 1825 was sent by King Maximilian-Joseph to visit the museums of Holland, England and France. After Spix died in 1826 he became director of the Zoological Museum in Munich, and in 1827 professor extraordinary at the university. He wrote Monographia Psittacorum in 1832, which included the correct naming of the blue macaws, and died that year of an accidental gunshot wound while out collecting. Three reptile species carry his name.