Adolph Cornelis van Bruggen was born on 9 July 1929, the eldest son of A.C. van Bruggen, Sr. and A.C.G. van Bruggen-van Eyk Bijleveld. He spent his youth in The Hague.[1]Natural history and particularly animals always caught his attention.[1] His father was a high-ranked civil servant at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie was administered by that ministry at the time, and when he graduated from the Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague in 1949, his father introduced him to Dr. Carel Octavius van Regteren Altena (1907–1976), curator of Mollusca at the museum, who stimulated his interest in malacology.
At Leiden University van Bruggen studied systematic botany, animal ecology and systematic zoology. In 1956 he graduated, after three years as an assistant to Prof. Dr. Hilbrand Boschma (1893–1976), the director of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, who taught Systematic Zoology at Leiden University.[1]
The start of van Bruggen's malacological career can be dated back to 1948, when he became a member of the Dutch Malacological Society (NMV). His first malacological publication, in Dutch, appeared in 1948 in the Dutch journal De Levende Natuur; a short note reporting a find of the marine bivalve Anomia ephippium, an uncommon species in the Netherlands. His very first publication had appeared earlier in the same year in the same journal; it reported a sighting of seals and a horse mackerel on a Dutch beach.[1]
It was also in Leiden that van Bruggen met his wife, Wenda van Bruggen-Gorter. She became painfully aware of his malacological interests when one day on their honeymoon in Switzerland, they were returning home late in the evening and van Bruggen found a beautiful specimen of the slug Limax cinereoniger that he wanted for his collection. However, not having any glass vials with him (plastic bags were unknown in those days) he asked to use Wenda's evening bag to bring the animal home.[1]
Originally intending to depart to the Dutch East Indies after his studies, this became impossible when the former Dutch colony achieved independence, as Indonesia, on 27 December 1949. Since van Bruggen had a firm interest in the tropics, the couple decided to move to Africa instead.[1]
In Africa (1957–1966)
They sailed to South Africa, stopping on their way at the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, in May 1957. In South Africa, van Bruggen had accepted a job at the Ministry of Agriculture in Pretoria. There he was charged with the study of insects and the problems they caused in warehouses. After three years he accepted the position of Marine Biologist and Curator at the newly erected Oceanarium in Port Elizabeth. Shortly afterwards, he accepted a position as curator at the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg. Both van Bruggens worked at the museum from 1962 to 1966; she as a librarian and his personal assistant in the field. They frequently went out for fieldwork, making collection trips as far north as Malawi and Zambia.
During his African years, in addition to his work on insects and snails, van Bruggen expanded into work on mammals and birds. Contacts with field staff of South African National Parks brought a new focus on nature conservation, and stimulated an interest in zoos. In 1963, at the 125th anniversary of Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, van Bruggen sent a number of rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis), as a gift from Dutch biologists working in South Africa.[1]
At the beginning of 1966, van Bruggen accepted an invitation to return to the Netherlands to teach in the department of Systematic Zoology at Leiden University, invited van Bruggen to teach at that institution.[1]
In the Netherlands
At Leiden University, van Bruggen taught undergraduates in Systematic Zoology. In 1969 he received his Ph.D. with the thesis Studies on the land molluscs of Zululand with notes on the distribution of land molluscs in Southern Africa.
Although officially employed by the University, his actual place of work was a few minutes away at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, where his supervisor was Prof. Dr Leo Brongersma, director of the museum.[1]
Besides his work he devoted much time to various organizations. With the Dutch Malacological Society (Nederlandse Malacologische Vereniging, NMV), he served as Secretary (1953–1956), interim President (1970–1972) and Treasurer (1983–1986) on the Board. He was editor of the Correspondentieblad (1951–1953) and, after a short interruption, again from 1954 to 1956. Since 1968, he has been editor, then editor-in-chief, of Basteria, the scientific journal of NMV. He was elected Honorary Member of the Society in 1999.[1]
He served as President of the 7th International Malacological Congress in Amsterdam in 1977, organized on behalf of Unitas Malacologica, the international organisation of malacologists. From 1989 to 1999, he was chairman of the Netherlands Commission for International Nature Conservation, also serving as editor of its communications. He also work with the Netherlands Zoological Society, the (former) Netherlands Foundation for Biological Research and the Dutch/Belgian Mammal Society.[1]
He retired in 1994, with a lecture entitled Semper aliquid novi ex Africam adferre, which may be translated as "there is always something new from Africa", and which may be regarded as van Bruggen's personal motto. Afterwards he continued his studies as an associate of the Leiden museum, spending most of his days in the building at the Raamsteeg and later at the Darwinweg in Leiden, where he continues to study and publish on Mollusca and other topics.[1]
Starting in the 1990s, the van Bruggen made several private trips to southern Africa. During their 2008 trip, van Bruggen accepted Dai Herbert's request to cooperate in revising some material collected in the Drakensberg Mountains, which allowed him to continue with his great love – land snails of South Africa.[1]
Dolf van Bruggen's wide interest in systematic biology and related fields are reflected in his numerous publications, which cover topics as diverse as marine and non-marine Mollusca, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, as well as zoo biology, museum collections, nature conservation, bibliographical matters, and historical accounts, apart from numerous book reviews and obituaries, to name only the fields on which he wrote more than a single contribution. The complete listing of his publication include 655 records up till 2008.[1]
The flow of publications over the years since 1948 continues to the present and has never been interrupted. Fluctuations in his production have been relatively small. On average, 11 papers appeared annually. There has never been a year with less than four papers and that happened only once. His most productive years (in number of papers) are 1960–1966, when he resided in South Africa; 1961 has been his most productive year with 23 papers.[1]
His most important scientific contributions concern the fields of malacology, entomology and botany. His botanical publications are restricted to the year 1958, when he published two systematic papers on Sapotaceae from Borneo with the description of a new genus and two new species.[1]
His entomological production lasted longer, from 1954 to 1963. In this period, he published 18 papers, mainly on Ephemeroptera from Southeast Asia and New Guinea, and on Diptera from southern Africa, thereby introducing 14 new species and two new genera.[1]
The vast majority of his scientific papers dealt with the systematics and biogeography of the Mollusca. In the early period of his career he published on both marine and non-marine taxa, but the former more or less stopped after 1963, possibly related to his move from a marine institute at Port Elizabeth to the Natal Museum at Pietermaritzburg.[1]
Most of van Bruggen's scientific work has been devoted to land snails, especially those from subsaharan Africa and the islands surrounding this continent. Although there are few families on which he has not published, there are three families that may be considered his particular area of expertise and fascination: the pulmonate families Streptaxidae and Achatinidae and the operculate (caenogastropod) family Maizaniidae.[1]
The interest in the carnivorous family Streptaxidae was undoubtedly raised by van Bruggen's prolonged stay in South Africa, quite possibly inspired by Matthew William Kemble Connolly’s (1939)[3] impressive monograph on the South African non-marine Mollusca, in which a picture of an extremely diverse and aesthetically appealing streptaxid radiation was painted. In all, he described three new genera and 60 new species and subspecies of Streptaxidae, all but four from Africa.[1]
Achatinidae are a family of rather large land snails, and, in spite of their size, one that poses tremendous taxonomic problems, and van Bruggen is one of the few people who knows his way in the chaotic taxonomy of this group. He devoted various papers partly or wholly to the family and introduced six new species and subspecies. He was a friend of the recently deceased American Achatinidae specialist Albert Raymond Mead (1915–2009). They regularly exchanged opinions, but did not publish jointly.[1]
A third group that apparently has his special interest are the terrestrial operculates, formerly known as ‘Prosobranchia’, a heterogeneous assemblage of gastropods with an operculum and separate males and females (in contrast to the hermaphrodite pulmonate land snails). Operculate gastropods appear to be particularly poorly represented in subsaharan Africa in comparison to other continents, especially tropical Asia. Since the early 1980s van Bruggen has taken it on him to revise the African representatives of this group, especially the families Maizaniidae and Cyclophoridae. This study resulted in the description of three new subgenera and ten new species (thereby doubling the number of African taxa known), and a series of papers with careful descriptions, keys and biogeographic analyses of the ‘prosobranch’ fauna in Africa and beyond.[1]
Dendrotrichia van Bruggen & Verdcourt, 1965,[101] type species Trachycystis (Dendrotrichia) sylvicola van Bruggen & Verdcourt, 1965 (Stylommatophora, Charopidae).
Diopsis vanbruggeni H. R. Feijen & C. Feijen, 2009[142] Type locality: Malawi, Ntchisi rainforest, small tributary stream of Mahatope River (Diptera, Diopsidae).
Notiophygus vanbruggeni John, 1964[143] Type locality: Zululand (Coleoptera, Discolomidae) [taxon mentioned in the Zoological Record, but not found in publication].
Chloritis vanbruggeni Maassen, 2009[154] Type locality: Indonesia, Central Sulawesi, Pulau [Island] Peleng, Gunung [Mount] Tatarandang (Camaenidae).
Gulella bruggeni Cole & Herbert, 2009[155] Type locality: South Africa, E. Cape, Transkei, Hluleka Nature Reserve (Streptaxidae).
Gulella mkuu Rowson, Seddon & Tattersfield, 2009[156] Type locality: Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Samburu District, Ndoto Mountains (Streptaxidae). Dedication in the reference include: "From Swahili noun or adjective mkuu, meaning great, principal, elder, chief, etc. As a noun in apposition, with reference to the size of the shell, but also to Dr A.C. van Bruggen, a distinguished and esteemed contributor to African malacology."[156]
Inchoatia megdova bruggeni Gittenberger & Uit de Weerd, 2009[157] Type locality: Greece, Thessalia, Trikala, 7.5 km WNW of Pyli (= Pili), 8.5 km S of Elati along road to Agh. Prokopios (Clausiliidae).
^Connolly M. (1939) "A monographic survey of South African non-marine molluscs". Annals of the South African Museum33: 1-660; pls. 1–19 and 58 text figs.
^van Bruggen A. C. (2007). "Studies on the Streptaxidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda Pulmonata) of Malaŵi 9. Description of Gulella streptostelopsis, a new Streptostele-like species of Gulella". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 81(1): 2. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^van Bruggen A. C. (2008). "Studies on the Streptaxidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda Pulmonata) of Malaŵi 10. Description of Gulella systemanaturae, a new species from Dedza Mountain". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden, 82(2) pp. 9-14. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, PDF.
^Bulletin de l’Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique (Biologie) 65: 99.
^Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (C) 79: 213.
^Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen96: 144.
^van Bruggen A. C. (1978). "Land molluscs". pp. 877-923. In: Werger ed. Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa [Monographiae Biologicae 31] Junk, the Hague. (2): 893.
^Bruggen A. C. van, Herbert D. G. & Breure A. S. H. (2016). "Prestonellinae – validation of the name as a new subfamily of Bothriembryontidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Orthalicoidea)". Zootaxa4084: 590–592.
^Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen93: 238.
^Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen95: 530.
^Deeleman-Reinhold C. L. (2009). "Description of lynx spiders of a conopy fogging project in northern Borneo (Araneae: Oxyopidae), with description of a new genus and six new species of Hamataliwa". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 673-700. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^Kraus O. (1966). "Phylogenie, Chorologie und Systematik der Odontopygoideen (Diplopoda, Spirostreptomorpha)". Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft512: 1–143.
^Feijen H. R. & Feijen C. (2009). Diopsis (Diopsidae) with unusual wing spots: two new species from Malawi with a longer eye span in females than in males". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 701–722. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^John H. (1964). "Die südafrikanische Gattung Notiophygus Gory (Discolomidae, Col.) nebst Beschreibung vier neuer Arten". Annals of the Natal Museum16: 172–190.
^Achterberg C. van (2009). "A new species of the genus Phaenocarpa Foerster from Madagascar (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Alysiinae)". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 667–671. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^Theron J. G. (1986). "New genera and species of southern African Coelidiinae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae), with description of the new tribe Equeefini". Phytophylactica18: 153–163.
^Krikken J. (2008). "Blind, flightless termitophiles of the genus Termitotrox in East Africa: three new species with a generic review (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Termitotroginae)". Tijdschrift voor Entomologie151: 65–75.
^Forcart L. (1967). "Studies on the Veronicellidae, Aperidae and Urocyclidae (Mollusca) of Southern Africa". Annals of the Natal Museum18: 505–570.
^Mead A. R. (2004). "Comparative reproductive anatomy in the South African giant land snails (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Achatinidae)". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 78: 417–449.
^Dance S. P. (1972). "Bruggennea n.gen., proposed for Recent streptaxids from Borneo (Gastropoda, Streptaxidae)". Archiv für Molluskenkunde102: 131-132.
^Van Mol J. J. (1970). "Révision des Urocyclidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Pulmonata). Anatomie - systématique - zoogéographie". Annales Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Sciences Zoologiques 180: 1-231.
^Aartsen J. J. van & Corgan J. X. (1996). "South African pyramidellacean gastropod names". Basteria60: 153–160.
^Verduin A. (1984). "On the taxonomy of some Recent European marine species of the genus Cingula s.l. (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia)". Basteria48: 37-87.
^Jong K. M. de & Coomans H. E. (1988). "Marine gastropods from Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire". Studies on the Fauna of Curacao and other Caribbean Islands121: 1–261.
^Maasen W. J. M. (2009). "Remarks on the genus Chloritis in Sulawesi, Indonesia, with the description of two new species (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Camaenidae)". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 595-600. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
^Cole M. L. & Herbert D. G. (2009). "Description of four new species of Gulella Pfeiffer, 1856 from Eastern Cape, South Africa, with additional notes on two poorly known species (Mollusca: Eupulmonata: Streptaxidae)". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 547–564–671. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^ abRowson B., Seddon M. B. & Tattersfield P. (2009). "A new species of Gulella (Pulmonata: Streptaxidae) from montane forest in the Ndoto Mountains, Kenya". Zoologische Mededelingen83HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^Gittenberger E. & Uit de Weerd D. R. (2009). "Summarizing data on the Inchoatia taxa, including Inchoatia megdova bruggeni subspec.nov. (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Clausiliidae)". Zoologische Mededelingen Leiden 83: 577-587. HTMArchived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine.
^Aartsen J. J. van, Menkhorst H. P. G. M. & Gittenberger E. (1984). "The marine Mollusca of the Bay of Algeciras, Spain, with general notes on Mitrella, Marginellidae and Turridae". Basteria2: 1–135.
^Winter A. J. de (2008). "Notes on Parennea species from Western Africa, including descriptions of two new species (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Streptaxidae)". Basteria72: 215–222.
^Breure A. S. H. (1978). "Notes on and descriptions of Bulimulidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda)". Zoologische Verhandelingen Leiden 164: 1–255.
^Fischer-Piette E. (1974). "Sur les Veneridae de l’océan indien occidental (Mollusca, Pelecypoda)". Tethys5: 267–316.
