Bengt-Oloft Landin 1925-2006

Bengt-Oloft Landin.

Landin was an ardent coleopterist at an early age and, together with his mentor Carl Lindroth, they were responsible for much of the social activities of the Stockholm Entomological Society in the 1940s. When Lindroth was appointed the new entomology chair in Lund, Landin followed him there and wrote his PhD thesis on classical ecology of Aphodiinae, entitled Ecological Studies on Dung-beetles (1961). Most of his field experiments and collections were made in the remarkable alvar (limestone pavement) and sand environments of the Baltic island of Fårö, where he spent his summers. In his thesis, he showed that aphodiine dung beetles can be divided into thermophilic and thermophobic (shade-loving) species, and he argued that this division was a more important habitat factor than which animal produced the dung. This now seems true for northern Europe where most of the dung beetle fauna is mobile synanthropic, largely living on the dung of domestic animals, while in other areas of the world where there are older patterns of local adaptations, the type of dung has been shown to be more important. In a similar vein he wrote a small monograph on the diel flight-activity of the species of the local aphodiine assembly (1968).

He also dealt with systematics, revising the Scarabaeoidea types of many of the classic north European authors (most importantly Linnaeus but also Fabricius and Zetterstedt), and the Scarabeoidea of the Cape Verde islands. He also published a work on the Swedish scarabaeoid fauna (1957). When Lindroth retired, Landin succeeded him as the chair (1972-1991). After that, he produced three tomes of identification guides to all insect genera in Sweden (left unfinished, but it included both Coleoptera and Hymenoptera), and a few papers revising small groups of mostly Afrotropic aphodiines. He is the author of 16 species-level taxa and 6 genus-level taxa (Brindalus, Paradeloparius, Neocolobopterus, Microteuchestes, Megateloides, Silluvia) in Aphodiinae.

In his later years he devoted more time to his lifelong interests in Swedish literature, book-collecting, and student theatre, and his own acting parts included some film comedies.

Reference:
Sörensson, M. 2010. Till minnet av Bengt-Olof Landin (1925-2006). Entomololgisk Tidsskrift 131: 205-213.