Eino L. Krall

1931-2009

Excerpted from an obituary by Alexander Y. Ryss in Nematology Newsletter 56(3) September 2009

Eino L. Krall was born October 9, 1931 in Tartu, Estonia  He died August 27, 2009. Eino Krall was considered the most prominent nematologist in Eastern Europe, a person of encyclopedic knowledge, a remarkably kind and open colleague and teacher. He was author of over 400 publications. In 1995 he was elected Honorary Member of the Russian Society of Nematologists and in 1984 he was awarded the Prize of the Academician Karl von Baer (the highest scientific national prize in Estonia). In 1992 he was elected Honorary Member of the Florida Nematology Forum.

Eino L. Krall studied at Tartu State University and was a graduate student at the Institute of Zoology and Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR). He defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled: “Phytonematodes of potatoes in Estonia”, in the Academy of Sciences of the ESSR, Tallinn. His D.Sc. thesis “Problems of the systematics and evolution of the nematodes of the families Heteroderidae and Hoplolaimidae” was defended in 1980 in the K.I.Skrjabin All-Union Institute of Helminthology, Moscow.

From 1958 to1992 he was at the Institute of Zoology and Botany of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia. From 1992-1996 he was head of the Department of Systematic Zoology in the Institute of Zoology and Botany and, in the same period (1992-1997) head of the Department of Systematic Zoology in the University of Tartu where he continued, until 2009, as Professor emeritus.

Professor Krall published many important taxonomic papers on the nematodes of the order Tylenchida, mainly on Heteroderidae and Anguinidae, and the co-evolution of these groups with their host plants. He demonstrated that the more recent the plant taxon and the more rich it is in species diversity, the more narrow the host range of the cyst-forming nematode species that parasitize the plant taxon. His views on evolution of the heteroderids were shared later by many nematologists.

E.L.Krall and E.S.Kirjanova published the large 2-volume manual on plant nematodes (Kirjanova E.S., Krall E.L. [Parasitic nematodes and their control measures]. Leningrad, Nauka Publishers, Vol. 1.1969 - 447 p.; Vol. 2. 1971- 522 p. In Russian). The book was the second fundamental review book on plant nematology published in Russia, following the book of Filipjev (Filipjev I.N. 1934. [Nematodes harmful and beneficial for agriculture]. Moscow-Leningrad, later was republished by Filipjev and Schuurmans Stekhoven (Filipjev I. N., Schuurmans Stekhoven, J.N. 1941. A manual of agricultural helminthology. Leiden: Brill, 878 p.). The book was a summary of practically all the records of plant parasitic nematodes in the countries of the former Soviet Union with record of bibliographical sources, nematode species and the plant hosts,  pathogenicity, localities, soil parameters and control measures.

In 1978, Dr. Krall published a manual on the identification of spiral nematodes of the family Hoplolaimidae which summarized their systematics, pathogenicity and world distribution. (Krall E.L. 1978. Root parasitic nematodes. Family Hoplolaimidae. Leningrad. Nauka Publishers. 420 pp. In Russian).

Professor Krall was aided in his analysis of the co-evolution of nematodes and their host plant taxa byhis wife, Heljo A. Krall, a botanist  and coauthor of his papers of Dr Krall on heteroderids evolution.

In the last years of his life (1997-2009) Eino Krall occupied the position of Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Zoology and Hydrobiology at the University of Tartu   From 1993-2000, E.L.Krall he taught Parasitology and wrote several  books and papers on plant parasitic nematodes in Estonia for beginning researchers and students.