Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French

lepidopterist Lepidopterology ()) is a branch of entomology concerning the scientific study of moths and the two superfamilies of butterflies. Someone who studies in this field is a lepidopterist or, archaically, an aurelian. Origins Post-Renaissance, the r ...

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, and

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the

Société entomologique de France Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy p ...

. While best known abroad for his work in entomology, he started his career in botany, collecting a great number of French plant specimens and writing broadly on the topic throughout his career, including the textbook ''Flores française'' in 1828. Early in his career, he was interested in

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

and allied himself with both

Jean Théodore Lacordaire Jean Théodore Lacordaire (; 1 February 1801 – 18 July 1870) was a Belgian entomologist of French extraction. Biography In spite of his obvious interest in natural history, Lacordaire's family sent him to Le Havre to study "le droit", or the ...

and

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoology, zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained hi ...

. He was the curator of the Pierre Françoise Marie Auguste Dejean collection in Paris and described many species of beetles, as well as butterflies and moths, resulting from the voyages of the ''Astrolabe'', the expedition ship of

Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse Jean-François () is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958) ...

and the '' Coquille'', that of

Louis Isidore Duperrey Louis-Isidore Duperrey (21 October 1786 – 25 August 1865) was a French naval officer and explorer. Biography Early life Louis-Isidore Duperrey was born in 1786. Career He joined the navy in 1802, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Cl ...

. He left Paris, where he had lived for nearly 60 years, in 1875, to retire in Ticheville near his family. His brother was Adolphe-Armand d'Echauffour de Boisduval (September 26, 1801 – March 1, 1842), a doctor, naturalist, and health officer in their native Ticheville. Boisduval's

Elateridae Elateridae or click beetles (or "typical click beetles" to distinguish them from the related families Cerophytidae and Eucnemidae, which are also capable of clicking) are a family of beetles. Other names include elaters, snapping beetles, sp ...

are in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

, London and the types of

Curculionidae The Curculionidae are a family of weevils, commonly called snout beetles or true weevils. They are one of the largest animal families with 6,800 genera and 83,000 species described worldwide. They are the sister group to the family Brentidae. Th ...

in Brussels Natural History Museum. His Lepidoptera were sold to Charles Oberthür. The

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths commonly called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as hornworms. It includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but species ar ...

are in the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Pit ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. The standard author abbreviation is Boisduval when citing a zoological name.

Works

*Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour Boisduval and

John Eatton Le Conte John Eatton Le Conte Jr. (sometimes John Eatton LeConte or John Eaton Leconte) (February 22, 1784 – November 21, 1860) was an American natural history, naturalist. He was born near Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the son o ...

, 1829–1837 ''Histoire général et iconographie des lepidoptérès et des chenilles de l'Amerique septentrionale'' (in English, ''General history and illustrations of the

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

and caterpillars of Northern America'') published in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Many of the illustrations for this work were done by John Abbot. The work was not completed until 1837. *Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour Boisduval,

Jules Pierre Rambur Jules Pierre Rambur (21 July 1801 – 10 August 1870) was a French entomologist. Rambur was born in Chinon. He studied the insect fauna of Corsica and Andalusia. He was the author of ''Histoire naturelle des insectes'' (1842) amongst other works ...

and

Adolphe Hercule de Graslin Adolphe Hercule de Graslin (11 April 1802, Chateaux de Malitourne, Flée, Sarthe – 31 May 1882, Malitourne) was a French entomology, entomologist. Adolphe Hercule de Graslin specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a founding member of the Société ...

''Collection iconographique et historique des chenilles; ou, Description et figures des chenilles d'Europe, avec l'histoire de leurs métamorphoses, et des applications à l'agriculture'', Paris, Librairie encyclopédique de

Roret The Boulevard Line () is a long partly underground railway between Copenhagen Central Station and Østerport Station in Copenhagen, Denmark. The quadruple track railway carries today one dual track for the Copenhagen S-train system and another d ...

, 1832. *

Jules Dumont d'Urville Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist an ...

Ed. Voyage de l'Astrolabe. ''Faune entomologique de l'Océanie par le Dr Boisduval''. Tome 1: Lepidoptéres (1832); Tome 2: Coléoptères, Hémiptères, Orthoptères Névroptères, Hyménoptères et Diptères (1835). *Boisduval, J. B., Mémoire sur les Lépidoptères de Madagascar, Bourbon et Maurice. ''Nouvelles Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle''. Paris 2:149–270. (1833
online here
and published by Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1833 *Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptéres. Tome Premier Hist. nat. Ins., Spec. gén. Lépid. 1 : 1–690 (1836) *Boisduval, J. B., 1852. Lepidoptères de la Californie ''Annales de la Société Entomologique de France'' 10(2):275–324.Lepidoptères de la Californie.
/ref>

References

External links

* *
Boisduval watercoloursBoisduval's major works online at GallicaNHM Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boisduval, Jean Baptiste 1799 births 1879 deaths 19th-century French botanists 19th-century French zoologists French taxonomists French lepidopterists Presidents of the Société entomologique de France 19th-century French physicians

Works

See also

References

External links