In memoriam Dr. Konjev Desender (1956-2008), entomologist and evolutionary ecologist

摘要

Born in Poperinge (West-Flanders) on 31 October 1956, Dr. Konjev Desender passed away on 9 September 2008 at the age of almost 52 after admirably fighting a long illness. His father was an air force pilot, his mother a bank employee. Konjev spent his early youth at Koksyde, an idyllic village at the Flemish coast, far away from hectic life in the rest of the country. Koksyde with its high dunes and huge sandy beaches where fishermen on horses went into the sea to catch the grey shrimp (Crangon crangon) and where whales entering the North Sea sometimes stranded on the huge sandbanks in front of the coast. He grew up in "le plat Pays" with the large empty spaces where wind and clouds rushed over in winter and nature was still everywhere. This area was also called "Bachten de kuupe" or "the killing fields of Flanders", where during his youth the memories of the Great ,Wars were omnipresent: memorials, military graveyards, the Yzer tower, barracks, blockhouses and military bases. It is a very characteristic region and Konjev loved his "plat Pays". He went to secondary school in the college of Veurne (Fumes), but finished his studies in Kortrijk when his family moved to the South of West-Flanders after his father became director of the airstrip of Wevelgem.