Marianne von Kreusler, a beetles beacon of South Australian early naturalist research, among German '49ers
Marianne von Kreusler, whose speciality was entomology, and particularly beetles, sold one of her collections to the South Australian Museum.
Photograph courtesy WikiTree and illustration courtesy of the South Australian Museum Archives: Jewel beetle on tea tree blossom by artist Jennifer Thurmer.
Naturalist Marianne von Kreusler arrived in South Australia from Hamburg on the Princess Louise in 1849 as a 38-year-old widow with her son and two daughters, and settled at Buchfelde, near Gawler. Her widowed daughter Eugene Constance (nee Reuter), whose husband had died in South America in 1848, also settled at Buchfelde.
Marianne von Kruesler farmed her land and became close friends with other German South Australian '49ers: Dr Ulrich Hübbe, Richard and Otto Schomburgk and Tanunda pastor Dr Carl Muecke, as well as James Martin of Gawler. Kreusler devoted most of her leisure time to natural history.
From her own research and exchanges with other naturalists around the world, including the famous Austrian naturalist Dr Franz Anton Nickerl of Prague, Kruesler built an extensive collection at her home of birds, animals, butterflies, beetles, shells, coral, reptiles, and mineral specimens.
Her specialty was entomology, particularly beetles. She found new subspecies of beetles in her unrelenting search in the local scrub with one of her granddaughters. Entomologist Johannes Odewahn also helped her briefly and Friedrich Schultze was another naturalist among Buchfelde settlers.
Kreusler also collaborated with Ferdinand von Mueller, a doctor of philosophy besides pharmacist and botanist, who was appointed Victorian government botanist in 1853 after six active of years of research in South Australia that resulted in his 1852 paper to the Linnean Society of London on the colony’s flora.
Also acknowledged as an authority on Australian entomology, Kruesler was elected an honorary member of the Linnaean Society. One of Kreuseler’s entomology collections was bought by the South Australian Museum for the large sum of £210 and she also presented specimens to the Gawler Institute.
