Jan Adrianus Herklots

Jan Adrianus Herklots (born 17 August 1820 in Middelburg, Zeeland; died 31 March 1872 in Zoeterwoude) was a Dutch zoologist whose main areas of research were carcinology and the echinoderms.

Herklots studied medicine and biology at the University of Leiden. In 1846 he was appointed as curator of invertebrates at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden, succeeding Wilhem de Haan, a position which he held until his death in 1872, his successor was Christiaan Karel Hoffmann.

In June 1851 he graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy, and his dissertation was entitled Additamenta ad faunam carcinologicam Africa occidentalis on the crustaceans from the Guinea coast, based on samples brought to the Netherlands by Hendrik Pel. In 1861 he published a museum catalogue of crustaceans from the system of Wilhem de Haan. He was also the author of important works on coelenterates, especially sea pens (Pennatulacea), and both modern and fossil taxa of echinoderms.

In 1854 the Museum established its divided the Department of Invertebrates into a Department of Non-Articulata, of which Herklots remained the curator and a Department of Articulata where Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880) was curator. In July 1860, the Department of Invertebrates was reorganized and van Vollenhoven became head of the entomological department, while Herklots became head of Arthropoda Non-Insecta, the position he held until his death.

Herklots was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, the Dutch Society of Sciences in Haarlem, and several other learned societies. The Indo-Pacific herring genus Herklotsichthys is named after Herklots.