clausen

- 2002

I was surprised to read the announcement of Stenholt Clausen's passing in this month's BNL. Clausen is probably a pretty obscure name to most killie people today, but in the late 1950's in Africa he was one of the first to seriously study and collect West African killifish species. So much of Scheel's work was based on fish and information that Clausen, his fellow Dane, sent him from the field. Clausen, through Scheel, introduced many species to the hobby, not the least of which was the first gardneri population -- Akure "yellow" and "blue." Scheel gave the gardneri the wrong name (calliurum) and Clausen described them as nigerianum but gardneri they were. This fish. more than any other, grew the killie hobby in the late 1950's.

Clausen's greatest contribution was his recognition that the blue gularis was in fact the fish described as Aphyosemion sjoestedti and the fish that had been called "sjoestedti" was an undescribed species that Clausen named Rolofia occidentalis. "Roloffia" as a valid name is sadly gone today, but it is not too much to say that Clausen's work on SJO and OCC helped to set off the entire inquiry into the names and relationships of so many West African killies over the years. Clausen was the pioneer. Along with Scheel and Erhard Roloff, Stenholt Clausen was the last of three masters who helped to make the worldwide killifish hobby and science what they are today.

Robert E.