Peter Weygoldt

Weygoldt was born April 24, 1933 in Wilhelmshaven to Walter Weygoldt and Hanna Weygoldt (née Wien-holz).^[1] Due to his father's military career he grew up moving between places including Bremen and Berlin in Germany and Kolberg in Poland, and changed schools over ten times.^[1] His father died 1943 in Riga while serving as a lieutenant colonel during World War II.^[1] He studied biology at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel for six years from 1952, including one year at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg.^[1] He obtained his doctorate in early 1958 before moving into research.^[1] He was working in Beaufort, North Carolina in 1966 when he met Sylvia Möhring who had an interest in wildlife and they married just a couple of months later.^[1] They moved to Freiburg in 1967 where Weygoldt worked as a senior assistant in the University of Freiburg before being made an adjunct professor in December 1978.^[1]

Although his work focused on Uropygi (whip scorpions), Amblypygi (whip spiders) and Pseudoscorpions, he also had an interest in frogs found in the tropics.^[2] He published in academic journals as well as his work being found in scientific films and books.^[2]

Weygoldt was known for studies of arachnid phylogeny including a seminal work that provided a scheme for arachnid inter-ordinal relationships.^[3]

He retired in September 1995, but continued his research for many years with his last publication in 2013 on sperm transfer and maternal brood care in flagellate scorpions.^[1]

In 2013 he received the Simon Award from the International Society of Arachnology for his life's work.^[1]

When he died in 2021 he was survived by his wife and their two daughters and two sons.^[1]