Tello Neckheim

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Tello Neckheim was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and still lives there! As a boy his wish was to study biology, but due to personal circumstances it was not possible However, his interest in nature remained and birding became his hobby. In addition, he was interested in almost all plant and animal groups. As an amateur malacologist, he started by making an inventory of terrestrial and freshwater molluscs in Amsterdam. 

 

After working for 10 years with his friend Rykel de Bruyne, another malacologist, he published the book “Van Nonnetje tot Tonnetje”. Tello then went on to study land snails in Belgium, France and Spain and published dozens of articles. Later, he also published on land snails of Canada and the Caribbean. In the meantime, he worked voluntarily as a nature protector. He was chairman of the board of an Amsterdam nature association for 30 years. In the last 15 years he has been monitoring the Narrow-mouthed whorl snail (Vertigo angustior), a habitat directive species in Europe. He has also given several presentations and led excursions while working part-time as a scientific researcher for Stichting Anemoon.

 

Tello is involved in the study of the terrestrial and freshwater molluscs of St. Martin and Saba. With the help of other scientists, he has been able to describe both a species and subspecies new to science on St. Martin along with publishing a number of articles about snails of the Caribbean. Currently he is working on an atlas of the terrestrial and freshwater molluscs of St. Martin and also plans to compile an atlas for the molluscs of Saba and St. Eustatius. 

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Presentation: Thursday, October 13th