In memory of Wilfried Wichard (1944–2024)

Abstract

Wilfried Wichard (WW) passed away in Bonn on 11 May, 2024 at the age of 80 (Fig. 1). He was born at Seppenrade in Westphalia, Germany on 25 April, 1944. From an early age he began to take an interest in nature. He started to collect insects during his high school years in Duisburg and published faunistic papers on Trichoptera. Faunistics remained a constant topic of interest in the first decades of his scientific career. Consequently, after high school he went on to study biology at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn from 1965–1971. After graduating in 1971, he pursued his interest in the respiration mechanisms of Trichoptera larvae and earned his doctorate in the research group of Prof. Dr. G.H. Bick in 1973. In the following years, he continued to work at the university on issues of ecophysiology, cytology, osmoregulation and respiration, mainly of Trichoptera larvae and pupae, but also of other aquatic groups. Over the years he and his co-authors published a series of high-quality papers with results of their physiological studies supported by the German Research Foundation.