The viticultural expert Emerich Ráthay (1845-1900) came from a Hungarian noble family and studied at the university in Wien. In 1874 he was appointed by August-Wilhelm Babo (1827-1894) to the Klosterneuburg Viticulture Institute (Lower Austria), where he taught mineralogy, geology, botany, zoology and plant diseases. The focus of his zoological studies was the biology of the vine pest, the grape berry moth and the San José scale, on which he published extensively. From the 1880s onwards, he worked on fungal diseases, especially downy mildew. He also excelled in researching the different flower shapes and seed formation of Vitis vinifera varieties and American vines, and did pioneering work in the breeding of new grape varieties. In 1888, he published the work "The Sex Ratios of the Vines and their Significance for Viticulture".
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