Henri Jekel (September 21, 1816, Paris - August 4, 1891) was a French

coleopterist Coleopterology (from Coleoptera and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''-logy, -logia'') is the scientific study of beetles, a branch of entomology. Practitioners are termed coleopterists and form groups of amateurs and professionals for business and pleasu ...

Life and work

Jekel ran a natural history items and books store in Paris. In 1849 he wrote a revision of the work ''Genera et species Curculionidarum'' by the Swedish entomologist

Carl Johan Schönherr Carl Johan Schönherr (10 June 1772 – 28 March 1848) was a Swedish people, Swedish entomologist who revised the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of beetles, including weevils by examining all the descriptions of beetles since the time of Linnaeus. H ...

. From 1854 to 1859 he self-published the three-volume work ''Fabricia entomologica''. In the following years he wrote a large number of specialist articles for various journals of entomological societies, including the first description of the giraffe neck beetle from Madagascar in 1860. In total, Jekel described over 550 taxa, 367 of which are still valid today. These include genera and species from the beetle families

Anthribidae Anthribidae is a family of beetle 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 i ...

Attelabidae The Attelabidae is a widespread family of weevils. They are among the primitive weevils, because of their straight antennae, which are inserted near the base of the rostrum. The prothorax is much narrower than the base of the elytra on the abdo ...

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 ...

and

Geotrupidae Geotrupidae (from Greek γῆ ''(gē)'', earth, and τρῡπητής ''(trȳpētēs)'', borer) is a family of beetles in the order Coleoptera. They are commonly called earth-boring dung beetles or dor beetles. Most excavate burrows in which t ...

. Genera described are Lasiorhynchites, Conothorax, Chelotrupes, Balanobius, Donus, Eudmetus, Elytroxys and Entomops. In 1855 he published the first part of ''Insecta Saundersiana or characters of undescribed insects in the collection of William Wilson Saunders'' and in 1860 the second part appeared under the title ''Insecta Saundersiana: Or, Characters of Undescribed Insects in the Collection of William Wilson Saunders, FRS, FLS Coleoptera - Curculionides'' both volumes being based on the collections of British entomologist

William Wilson Saunders William Wilson Saunders (4 June 1809 – 13 September 1879) was a British insurance broker, entomologist and botanist. Saunders was an underwriter at Lloyd's of London. He served as president of the Royal Entomological Society, Entomological ...

. Jekel was an avid collector of beetles, particularly scarab beetles and weevils. In 1873 and 1875 he published two volumes of his work ''Coleoptera Jekeliana, adjecta Eleutheratorum Bibliotheca''. In 1879 he sold his personal collection to his competitors Henri Deyrolle and Henri Donckier de Donceel. Jekel was a member 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 ...

. His zoological author abbreviation is Jekel.

Taxon names honouring him

Over 60 species of beetle were named after Jekel, 44 of which are still valid today. These include '' Hypselotropis jekeli'', '' Arachnobas jekeli'', '' Cholus jekeli'', '' Attelabus jekeli'', '' Jordops jekeli'', '' Gronops jekeli'', '' Euops jekeli'', '' Merohister jekeli'' and '' Cyrtonota jekeli''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jekel, Henri French entomologists 1816 births 1891 deaths