Theodore Edward (Theodor Edvard) Cantor (1809–1860) was a Danish physician, zoologist and botanist.[1] He described several new species of reptiles and amphibians, and six species have been named in his honor.
Born to a Danish Jewish family,[2] his mother was a sister of Nathaniel Wallich. Cantor worked for the British East India Company, and made natural history collections in Penang and Malacca.[3]
Cantor was the first Western scientist to describe the Siamese fighting fish.[4][5][6][7] In the scientific field of herpetology he described many new species of reptiles and amphibians.[8] Species first described by Cantor include Bungarus bungaroides (1839),[9] Bungarus lividus (1839),[10] Channa argus (1842),[11] Elaphe rufodorsata (1842),[12] Euprepiophis mandarinus (1842),[13] Hippocampus comes (1850),[14] Lycodon effraenis (1847),[15] Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (1842),[16] Naja atra (1842),[17] Oligodon albocinctus (1839),[18] Oligodon cyclurus (1839),[19] Ophiophagus hannah (1836),[20] Oreocryptophis porphyracea (1839),[21] Pareas monticola (1839),[22] Protobothrops mucrosquamatus (1839),[23] Ptyas dhumnades (1842),[24] and Trimeresurus erythrurus (1839).[25]
The snake genus Cantoria with the type species Cantoria violacea (Cantor's water snake) is named in Cantor's honour,[26] as are Acanthodactylus cantoris (Indian fringe-fingered lizard), Elaphe cantoris (eastern trinket snake), Hydrophis cantoris (Cantor's small-headed sea snake), Pelochelys cantorii (Cantor's giant softshell turtle), and Trimeresurus cantori (Cantor's pit viper).[27]
The real fighting fish appears to be a variety produced by artificial means, like the varieties of the golden carp of China, and Dr. Cantor named it Macropodus pugnax. When the fish is in estate of quiet, with the fins at rest, its dull colours ...
In his book, Malayan Fishes, Cantor describes and illustrates the imported Siamese fighting fishes he had seen in ... Anyway, he named a new species, called Macropodus pugnax Cantor, based on his Penang specimens, and said the ...
His descriptions constitute not only the first published records of Malayan fresh-water fishes but also include a new species, Macropodus pugnax Cantor. Cantor's collections, which consist partly of skins and partly of spirit specimens, were ...
The fighting Betta appeared as early as Cantor's 1 849 Catalog of Malayan Fishes where it was recognized (with illustrations) as different but a variant from the Macropodus pugnax with which it was grouped.
Coluber dhumnades Cantor, 1842 by original designation. Was synonymised with Ptyas by Wall (1923b) and Taylor (1965).
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