Ernst Priesner

On July 19, 1994, as on many previous occasions, Ernst Priesner left for a field trip to Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps. This time he did not return.

The mountains up there are rough and dangerous. A heavy storm swept the area the day after his disappearance. His friends went looking for him; even troops were sent up. All they found was the car and, out in the woods, his traps.

This is the only picture of Ernst I could find in my collection. It was taken during the famous conference on mechanisms of olfaction held in Oxford in 1985.

See a list of Ernst Priesner's pheromone discoveries.

When Miklós Tóth and Heinrich Arn planned to establish the pheromone database in 1985 (?), we immediately agreed that we needed Ernst's cooperation. He kept track of just anything that was written about Lepidoptera pheromones around the world and was able to contribute many unpublished data. His last updates arrived in May 1994.

Without his input, the Pherolist will not be the same. We update the list from a few journals we scan regularly, from additional reprints we receive and occasional abstract searches. However, this procedure cannot be exhaustive. Captures of non-target species, for example, are often reported in publications that have nothing to do with pheromone identification.

If you know something we overlooked and which should be listed, click here.