Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko (Russian: Алексей Павлович Федченко; 7 February [O.S. 19 February] 1844
– 31 August/15 September 1873), or Fedtschenko, was a Russian naturalist and explorer well known for his travels in central Asia. Alternative transliterations of his name, used in languages such as German, include Aleksei Pavlovich Fedtschenko and Alexei Pawlowitsch Fedtschenko.
He also collected significant numbers of insects from three explorations from 1869 to 1873. These were then studied by Ferdinand Morawitz in St Petersburg. He recorded 438 species belonging to 36 genera from Central Asia, 68 species of Andrena, 17 species from Europe, and 51 new species.[3]
Soon after their return to Europe, he perished on Mont Blanc while engaged in a tour in France.[4] He had been trying to look at glaciers in France to see how they compared with those in Turkestan. He was 29 years old. His widow had him buried in Chamonix.[5]
After he died, his widow published his investigations and work, before she started re-exploring. She later worked with their son, Boris, but Olga remained an important botanist in her own right.[6]
Alexei Fedchenko discovered the life cycle of Dracunculus which causes Dracunculiasis, more commonly known as Guinea worm disease (GWD). Accounts of the explorations and discoveries of Fedchenko were published by the Russian government: his Journeys in Turkestan in 1874, In the Khanat of Khokand in 1875, and Botanical Discoveries in 1876. See also Petermann's Mittheilungen (1872–1874).[1]
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Fedtschenko", p. 88).
Robert Middleton and Huw Thomas, "Tajikistan and the High Pamirs", Odyssey Guides, 2008
Baker, D. B., 2004 Type material of Hymenoptera described by O. L. Radoszkowsky in the Natural History Museum, London, and the localities of A. P. Fedtschencko's Reise in Turkestan Dt. ent. Zeitschr. 51, 231–252.
Lohde, G. 1873 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Berl. Ent. Ztschr. 17 236–238.
Mac Lachlan, R. 1973 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (3) 10(1873–74)141.
Pesenko, Yu. A. & Astafurova, Yu. V. 2003: Annotated Bibliography of Russian and Soviet Publications on the Bees 1771 - 2002 (Hymenoptera: Apoidea; excluding Apis mellifera). Denisia 11 1–616.
Regel, E. 1874 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Regel, Gartenflora 3–7, Portr.