Wolfgang Lopau 1938 -2009
[news item September 2009]
We were saddened to hear of the death on July 30th, at
his newly built house in Molyvos, of Wolfgang Lopau, Lopi to all his many
friends. Lopi was a brilliant field naturalist with knowledge of many
aspects of the natural history of the Island. His lasting contribution is
to our knowledge of the dragonflies of Lesbos on which he worked for many
years and on which he was undoubtedly our greatest authority. As well as
numerous other papers on Lesbos dragonflies he compiled and published the
definitive species list together with a set of distributional maps. Lopi's
enthusiasm for dragonflies was infectious and he was ever ready to provide
encouragement and assistance to others. The Friends of Green Lesbos book
on the Dragonflies of Lesbos owes a great debt to him. He is survived by
his wife Gisella and his children Julia and Lorenz to whom we extend our
deepest sympathies. He will be greatly missed.