Education
He studied sciences at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, receiving his doctorate in 1873 with a thesis on phyllosoma.
He studied sciences at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, receiving his doctorate in 1873 with a thesis on phyllosoma.
Richters was the curator of Crustacea at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg from 1878 until his death in 1914. As a student he had as instructors, Friedrich Wöhler, Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen. In 1873/74 he worked as an assistant in the zoological institute at Göttingen, afterwards relocating to Frankfurt am Main, where he found employment at the Senckenberg Institute.
In 1886 he was named vice-director of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, where three years later, he was appointed first director
While on a scientific excursion to the Taunus Mountains in 1900, he developed an interest in tardigrades, subsequently publishing numerous papers on the phylum. He is credited with the discovery of many tardigrade species, including a number from the genus Diphascon.