Public lifeגרשום לוי

Gershom Levy

Gershom Levy was an Israeli arachnologist who studied the taxonomy of arachnids in the Land of Israel and curated Israel's national arachnid collection.

1937 to 2009Curating Israel's national arachnid collectionDescribing over 140 arachnid speciesThe Ayalon Cave scorpion family

Died: 21 March 2009
Occupation: arachnologist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Gershom Levy was born in 1937 in Tel Aviv

Gershom Levy was born in Tel Aviv in 1937 to Irma Fischer and Walter (Heinz) Levy. From 1943 he grew up in Jerusalem. He married in 1964 and had 3 children.

He studied biology at the Hebrew University. He earned a master's degree in 1964 with a thesis on sun spiders in Israel. In 1969 he received a doctorate for work on the crab spider Thomisus onustus and the family Thomisidae in Israel.

His work focused on describing the arachnids of Israel and the nearby region, mainly sun spiders, scorpions and spiders. He described over 140 species and several new genera, including a new scorpion family, Akravidae, from the Ayalon Cave. He published dozens of papers and several books, and edited a volume of an encyclopedia of Israel's plants and animals.

From 1978 until his death he was curator of the national arachnid collection. He died on March 21, 2009. Several arachnid species were named after him, both during his life and after it.