Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others.

Johan Christian Fabricius was born on 7 January 1745 at Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig, where his father was a doctor.

He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762.

On his return, he started work on his Systema entomologiæ, which was finally published in 1775.

Fabricius was appointed a professor in Copenhagen in 1770, and in 1775 or 1776, the University of Kiel appointed Fabricius professor of natural history and economics, promising that they would build a natural history museum and a botanical garden.

On hearing of the British attack on Copenhagen in 1807, Fabricius returned to Kiel, damaging his already fragile health.

He died on 3 March 1808, at the age of 63.

Fabricius was the first to divide the Staphylinidae (rove beetles), which Linnaeus had considered a single genus that he called "Staphylinus", establishing in 1775 the genus Paederus.

They include Begyndelsesgrundene i de økonomiske Videnskaber (1773), Polizeischriften (1786–1790) and Von der Volksvermehrung, insonderheit in Dänemark (1781).