Pierre Bonnet (1 September 1897 Villefranche-de-Rouergue – 16 August 1990) was a French

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly ...

who wrote ''Bibliographia Araneorum'', an immense work (6,481 pages) listing publications on spiders. It was the result of forty years of work. Pierre Bonnet was the son of Eugène Bonnet, a college teacher, and Clotilde, daughter of the comte (count) Jean-Baptiste de Villeneuve. He studied in Vic-Bigorrein the

Hautes-Pyrénées Hautes-Pyrénées (; Gascon/ Occitan: ''Nauts Pirenèus / Hauts Pirenèus'' awts piɾeˈnɛʊs ; alts piɾiˈneʊs ) is a department in the region of Occitania, southwestern France. The department is bordered by Pyrénées-Atlantiques to t ...

before being called up for military service in January 1916. He was demobilized in April 1919 with the Croix de Guerre. He resumed his studies in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

and

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

where he graduated in zoology in 1922. He then became a preparator at the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (, ) is a community of universities and establishments ( ComUE) based in Toulouse, France. Originally it was established in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the ...

where he will pass all his career, retiring in 1962 as a senior lecturer. His thesis, written in 1930, was devoted to the development, the phenomenon of

ecdysis Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticle in many invertebrates of the clade Ecdysozoa. Since the cuticle of these animals typically forms a largely inelastic exoskeleton, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The remnant ...

, autotomy and regeneration in the spiders, mainly in the European species of the genus '' Dolomedes''. Bonnet published around fifty scientific papers before 1945. They were the result of very many observations on hundreds of specimens which he preserves in bred, sometimes for many years. He thus studied the life cycle of '' Philaeus chrysops'' (Salticidae), ''

Latrodectus geometricus ''Latrodectus geometricus'', commonly known as the brown widow, brown button spider, grey widow, brown black widow, house button spider or geometric button spider, is one of the widow spiders in the genus ''Latrodectus''. As such, it is a 'cousi ...

'' and '' Theridion tepidariorum'' (two Theridiidae), of '' Physocyclus simoni'' (

Pholcidae The Pholcidae are a Family (biology), family of Araneomorphae, araneomorph spiders. The family contains more than 1,800 individual species of pholcids, including those commonly known as cellar spider, daddy long-legs spider, carpenter spid ...

), '' Filistata insidiatrix'' ( Filistatidae), etc. In 1945, he published the first volume of Bibliographia Araneorum. The last appeared in 1961. In this he analyses all the literature on spiders prior to 1930. He indexed all the scientific names, lists the errors and misinterpretation made by their original authors and establishes strict synonymies. In addition to biographies of the principal arachnologists in the first part, he gives an analysis of the themes of this literature. This work, which would be simple today with data processing, was carried out entirely manually. He testifies that he sometimes recopied whole works, lent by various institutions. Bonnet sent in 1947 a petition to the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

asking it to accept, by derogation, the scientific names created by

Carl Alexander Clerck Carl Alexander Clerck (1709 – 22 July 1765) was a Sweden, Swedish entomologist and arachnology, arachnologist. Clerck came from a family in the petty Swedish nobility, nobility and entered the University of Uppsala in 1726. Little is known of hi ...

(v. 1710–1765) in 1757. These names were made admissible even though they were published before the tenth edition of ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' of Carl von Linné (1707–1778). He was with his wife, Camille, a professor of Spanish, an authority on Spanish culture and published several articles on the nationality of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

. The International Society of Arachnology offers a Bonnet Award recognising services to the arachnological community.

Bibliography

* Jean-Jacques Amigo, « Bonnet (Pierre, Numa, Louis) », in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises, vol. 3 Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, Perpignan, Publications de l'olivier, 2017, 915 p. () * non(1992). "Pierre Bonnet", ''Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society'', 9 (1) : 31–32. (ISSN 0524-4994)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnet, Pierre 20th-century French zoologists French arachnologists People from Villefranche-de-Rouergue 1897 births 1990 deaths