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Trav. Mus. null. His!. nut. ctgrigore Antipau Vol. XLI pp. 649-653 1999 In memoriam Professor Dr. Doc. Mihai I.

Being one of those who graduated the Faculty of Biology within the "Alexandru loan Cuza" University from la$, I consider myself lucky in getting a high

1 Trav. Mus. null. His!. nut. ctgrigore Antipau Vol. XLI pp In memoriam Professor Dr. Doc. Mihai I. Constantineanu (1 1 October March 1993) A life dedicated to the educational activity and to scientifical research. Being one of those who graduated the Faculty of Biology within the "Alexandru loan Cuza" University from la$, I consider myself lucky in getting a high education inspired by a "golden pleiad" of professors from the oldest university of the country. From this pleiad, a place of honour was occupied by Prof. Dr. Doc. MIHAI I. CONSTANTINEANU. I met him in 1961, when, with the fevershiness of a country boy, I was amazed and troubled by the fear of not fulfilling my wish of learning as much as possible from the experiences oferred by "ALMA MATER". In Prof. Mihai Constantineanu I saw a Titan, with an inexhaustible vitality, during his courses, in laboratories or during the scientifical trips.

2 650 DUMITRU MURARIU As a matter of fact, his unusual vitality helped him in overcoming numerous difficulties of his time; he passed over the ingratitude of some zealous malefactors, he imposed a strict exigence to his students, he succeeded in drawing them in different specialized circles and, especially, he created a very good entomological school, where, a lot of specialists in ichneumonoids became famouse all over the world. The hard work "...in silance..." - as he confesed at his 90"' anniversary - was an old tradition which was an honour for his family of wealthy country men. He was born on Illh of October 1894 (25"' of October, according to the Gregorian calendar). His native village (Dorobanfi from the ex-commune Coste~ti - today Nic~eni) was the cradle of his school education during the first four years of school. The fifth form was graduated with excelent results at "August Treboniu Laurian" High School from Boto~ani. But, as in his mother's family there were numerous priests, she decided that her boy had to attend the courses of "Veniamin Costachi" Seminar from Ia~i, in order to become a priest. The transference to another school was not too difficult because he was accopanied by his good coleague and friend Petre Sust8r. At this seminar ( ) the pupil Mihai I. Constatineanu assimilated profoundly all the subjects, especially Latin, Greek and German languages. In the autumn of the same year (1917), after he got the graduading certificate of the Theological Seminar, he was admitted to the membership of the Mihailene University from Iaqi, the Faculty of Natural Sciences; also here he was together with his coleague and friend Petre $ustar, the future professor of biology at this university. Still being a student, on the ls' of April 1921, he was appointed substitute assistant at the Laboratory of Descriptive Zoology, led by the well-known professor Ion Borcea. This wonderful savant had wanted to introduce applicative researchings in Romania, especially on the biological pest control. Thus, Mihai I. Constantineanu chose for study the family Ichneumonidae, parasite entomofagous insects, perfect for his master's purpose. During his student years he founded the "Society of the excursionist students". Mihai I. Constantineanu knew very well the plants, too. On the 5Ih of February 1923 he got the natural sciences degree, being marked very well, "cum laude". Next year (1924) he left for Vienna for studying "on the spot" the collections of insects from the Naturhistorisches Museum and from Bundesanstalt fir Pflanzenschutz, where he met Professor Bruna Wahl. Between he attended the "Friederich Wilhelm" University from Berlin. Also in 1929 (on 25Ih of Februaly) he

3 PROF. DR. DOC. MIHAI 1. CONSTANTINEANU ( ) 65 1 presented the thesis for the Ph degree, guided by his master from Romania, Prof. Ion Borcea. The theme of the thesis was "Contribution a l'etude des Ichneumonides de la Roumanie", getting the maximum mark and, afterwards, published in "Ann. St. Univ. Iassy, XV, f. 3-4: In the review of the thesis, made just by Prof. Borcea in "V.Adamachifl Journal, it was mentioned: " Minuteness goes up to individual variations, anomalies and local fonns. This thing turned the author into an authority in this group. The paper ends with proper considerations on the using of the biological control method with ichneumonids, especially for the pest control in agriculture". After he graduated the Faculty from Berlin he got a scholarship from "Vasile Adamachi" Foundation, for studying the collections of Ichneumonidae from the Museum fur Naturkunde. The well-known professors Richard Hesse and Hans Bischoff encouraged him and guided him in the study of the ocelli in dipterans. The results were published in 1930, in the impressive work "Der Aufbau der Sehorgane bei den Siisswasser lebenden Dipterenlarven und bei Puppen und Imagines von Culex" (Zool. Jahrb. Abot. 1: Anatomie, B. 52, H. 2: ). His contributions to the study of the structure of the dipteran larvae double ocelli were cited in all great treaties of Entomology and Zoology all over the world. The University from Berlin gave him a scholarship for some months for Stazione Zoologica di Napoli. From there he went to the entomological collections of the National Museum of Natural History from Paris and, to the National Institute of Agronomy of France (INRA). He also studied in the "Arago" Laboratory from Banyuls-sur-Mer, in the Marine Zoological Station from Roskoff, at the Superior Institute of Agriculture from Portici (Italia) and in the American Station of Entomology from Hyeres. On the occasion of his participation at International Congress of Entomology at Padova, in 1930, he worked a period of time at the Entomological Station from Bologna, under Guido Grandi's guidance. Since then he studied and continued to study the Ophionids from fam. Ichneumonidae. Thus he specialized and distinguished himself as a scientifical personality, becoming the savant Mihai I. Constantineanu, the founder of the Romanian school of biological control. From the educational point of view, he started as assistent with a temporary title in 1925, and then he became full assitent in In 1933 he was appointed Chief of projects and later on, in 1942, lecturer of entomology of the Faculty of Agro-Technics from the Agronomical Institute from Ia~i. There he also was the dean of the faculty and founded

4 the Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology. In 1948 he was deputy professor and in 1950 was appointed full professor of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology. Beginning with 1950 he returned to the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University from Ia~i, as professor of invertebrate zoology up to When he retired he was rewarded, getting the title of Honoured Professor. Within the same period ( ) he also was the chief of the Zoology Chair of the Faculty of Biology. He also was consulting professor and leader of the theses for the Ph degree, guiding 20 theses in entomology, especially in biological control; his candidates for the doctor's degree are now wellknown researcher and universitary professors, good specialists recognized in Romania and abroad, honouring their master's school from Ia~i. Professor Mihai I. Constantineanu published over 200 scientifical papers, some of them being monographs, especially on ichneumonidae. Protection of the species by creating natural reserves and parks was another problem he dealt with. He faught against all kinds of pollution, underlining the necessity of biological control. He said: "Biological fight is the best method of pest control. You know me as an inflexible enemy of the chemical control. Chemical weapon is double-edged; undoubtly its action returns against those who use it as a boomerang. Chemical pollution is one of the most dangerous phenomena of our age. Biological fight cannot be done at random; its utilization requires a large quantity of "greyish gold". He was a member of numerous scientifical societies from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and others. In 1961 and 1977 he was rewarded with "Emil RacovitB" Prize of the Romanian Academy, where he had been correspondent member as far back as In the Series "Romanian Fauna" he published four monograph volumes on Ichneumonidae (1959, 1965, 1977 and 1982); other three volumes were handed also to the Publishing House of the Academy. In all his articles he described four new subtribes (Scambini, Delomeristini, Chalinocerini and Trachyspliyrini), five new subfamilies of Ichneumonidae (Neorhacodinae, Brachycyrtinae, Thymaridinae, Latibulinae and Gyrodontinae), for the first time, new to science, six genera and 61 species new to science too. Only from the Romanian fauna he described two subfamilies, 15 genera and several hundreds of species new to science. Thus we have a suggestive image on the value of Prof. Mihai I, Constantineanu's contributions to the problems of taxonomy and phylogeny of Ichneumonids. Not at random, numerous specialists all over the world dedicated him several species. His collection of over 5,000 taxa consists of over 300,000 ichneumonid specimens, a rich

5 PROF. DR. DOC. MlHAl I. CONSTANTINEANU ( ) 653 data base on the faunal biodiversity of Romania and a valuable element of the cultural-scientifical patrimony of our country. Researcher Mihai I. Constantineanu was doubled by a close and, in the same time, a distant professor. As his student, I felt him close when he was interested in my origin, in my parents, when I realized that the great savant always had time to know his students very much interested in zoology and in the scientifical research of this field. He was distant when I was rather left-handed during dissections and 1 was not rigorous when I was writing the explanations of the drawings; in fact he behaved like a spiritual parent who wanted his "sons7' to have a very good education. He was relaxed and even funny during the afternoon courses, when he taught us the invertebrates, mostly the mallophaga. But how upset he was when we touched the slides with the object glass of the microscope! It seemed difficult to be understood when he quarreled with his' assitants for small mistakes, but outside his laboratory nobody could harm them, because the master always protected his collaborators. Words, no matter their stylistic value is, could not reproduce thc emotions and the trust of the students of the first year when the imposer Professor entered the hall with all his assistants, and started to write on all the blackboards, never enough, the complex structures of his subject, completing his explanations mouving his hands and face according to the expressed ideas. His honourable succesors wrote a lot about their master, and the evocation of Prof. Mihai I. Constantineanu's personality in this article is a modest homage by the author to his master. NULLUM EST IAM DICTUM, QUOD NON SIT DICTUM PRIUS. Dr. DUMITRU MURARIU

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