Gaston Portevin (1869–1946) was a French naturalist and entomologist. He specialized in beetles and wrote several books including a monograph of the

Silphidae Silphidae is a family of beetles that are known commonly as large carrion beetles, carrion beetles or burying beetles. There are two family (biology), subfamilies: Silphinae and Nicrophorinae. Members of Nicrophorinae are sometimes known as bury ...

, which he called "necrophages".

Early life

Portevin was born in

Évreux Évreux () is a commune in and the capital of the department of Eure, in the French region of Normandy. History Antiquity In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century AD, was named '' Mediolanum Aulercorum'', "the central town ...

. His brother Henri Portevin (1874–1945) was also a naturalist and entomologist. He worked as a bank manager in

Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...

Entomology

He was introduced into entomology by

Maurice Auguste Régimbart Maurice Auguste Régimbart (1852 in Evreux – 22 September 1907 in Evreux) was a French entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera, particularly Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae and Hydrophilidae. Regimbart worked on expedition material collected mainly from ...

. He collected beetles extensively, became a part of the Paris beetle-collecting circle and became a subscriber of the ''

Miscellanea Entomologica ''Miscellanea Entomologica'' was a French entomology, entomological scientific journal. It was originally published by Eugène Barthe and established in 1892. Beginning The first issue of ''Miscellanea Entomologica'' was published in a larger f ...

''. He was a friend of publisher Paul Lechevalier through whom he produced several books on beetles. Portevin produced a key to the French

Cerambycidae The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns (whose larvae are often referred to as roundheaded borers), are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by anten ...

in 1927. Another major work was ''Histoire naturelle des coléoptères de France'' which he wrote from 1929 to 1935 which sought to be an exhaustive catalogue of all the beetles of France. He also collected diptera and wrote on a variety of natural history topics including reviews of books, mushrooms, edible insects, interesting plants, and sea grasses. His collection of Silphidae was acquired by

Maurice Pic Maurice Pic (23 March 1866, in Marrigny near Digoin – 29 December 1957, in Les Guerreaux) was a French entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera. He contributed to Mary-Louis Fauconnet's ''Catalogue raisonné des coléoptères de Saône-et- ...

. Portevin's younger brother Henri was also interested in beetles.

References

External links

* Histoire naturelle des coléoptères de France (1929-35)
Les grands nécrophages du globe
(1926)
Ce qu'il faut savoir pour manger les bons champignons
(1939)
List of publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portevin, Gaston 1869 births 1946 deaths French entomologists