Johannes Govertus de Man


Johannes Govertus de Man, was a Dutch biologist. He was assistant curator at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden, where he specialised in free-living nematodes and decapod crustaceans, although he also wrote papers on flatworms, sipunculids and, in his dissertation only, vertebrates. His change away from vertebrates disappointed the director of the museum, and de Man left his job there after eleven years. For the rest of his life, de Man worked at his parents' house in Middelburg and later at a house near the shore at Yerseke in the Oosterschelde estuary, relying on his family's private income.

Taxa named after de Man

De Man described many new taxa in his lifetime, mostly for crustaceans and nematodes. His crustacean taxa include 30 genera and 523 new species, while his nematode taxa comprise 8 new families, 61 new genera and 239 new species. Taxa described by de Man include: