Frej Ossiannilsson

Frej Ossiannilsson (December 8, 1908 – March 6, 1995) was a Swedish entomologist who specialized in Auchenorrhyncha, and is known also for discovering vibrational communication of insects. He is considered a pioneer of biotremology for work on behavioural and anatomical basis of vibrational communication.

Early life and education He was born as the eldest of five children to the writer Karl Gustav Ossiannilsson and his wife Naemi. After home schooling, he did military service and later enrolled at the Lund University, starting his work on insects. Ossiannilsson's first published paper (1934) dealt with the fauna of Auchenorrhyncha in Sweden. The following year he graduated and met his future wife Ingegärd Malström, with whom he married in 1938. That year, their daughter Maj was born.

In the meantime, Ossiannilsson became an assistant professor at the Agricultural college in Uppsala (now part of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and later full professor. There, he started working on the taxonomy of aphids, later returning to Auchenorrhyncha. He published several monographs on these groups for the series Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica. He created a collection of over 20,000 mounted specimens before retiring in 1974, but he continued taxonomical work even after that, expanding his interest to Psylloidea.

Final years Most of Ossiannilsson's free time was devoted to field collecting Auchenorrhyncha as well. Beside entomology, his interests were art and gardening. After his last publication in 1992, he suffered a stroke which left him half paralyzed, so he quit researching. His wife looked after him until his death in 1995. His contribution to science is now recognized, among others, by the community of biotremologists who established the Insect Drummer Award for esteemed researchers.