Robert Latzel

Robert Latzel (28 October 1845 – 15 December 1919) was an Austrian myriapodologist and entomologist who published a series of pioneering works on millipedes, centipedes, and allies. His collection of myriapod specimens, today housed in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, includes many type specimens. His monographs on the myriapods of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were the first comprehensive treatments of the large region's centipede and millipede faunas. He named nearly 130 taxa of millipedes (1 genus, 2 subgenera, 69 species and 56 variations) and over 40 centipede groups (2 genera, 29 species and 12 variations), as well as four taxa each of pauropods and symphylans. His work on millipedes pioneered the use of gonopods in millipede classification and species recognition. At least three authors have honored Latzel by naming a genus Latzelia (Scudder 1890, Bollman 1893, Verhoeff, 1895).