Victor Antoine Signoret (6 April 1816, Paris – 3 April 1889, Paris) was a French

pharmacologist Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between ...

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 ...

and

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

. In 1845 Signoret gained his doctorate in pharmacology at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. His thesis was entitled ''De l'Arsenic considéré sous ses divers points de vue''. Pharmacology made him a wealthy man and he made many collecting trips mainly in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

but also in

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. His very important collection is in the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria although there is significant material in La Specola museum in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Signoret worked on

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

, and is considered to be one of the first great students of

Coccoidea Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

(

mealybug Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm habitats. Of the more than 2,000 described species, many are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and ...

s and

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

s). He established methods for the preparation of slides for the examination of mealybug morphology. He wrote over 80 papers, including a ''Revision du groupe des Cydnides'' (1881–1884) and he was a Member of the Entomological Society of France, as well as an honour Fellow of the Entomological Society of London.

References

Sources

*Jean Gouillard (2004). ''Histoire des entomologistes français, 1750-1950''. Édition entièrement revue et augmentée. Boubée (Paris) : 287 p. *Jean Lhoste (1987). ''Les Entomologistes français. 1750-1950''. INRA Éditions : 351 p. *Anthony Musgrave (1932). ''Bibliography of Australian Entomology, 1775-1930, with biographical notes on authors and collectors'', Royal Zoological Society of News South Wales (Sydney) : viii + 380.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Signoret, Victor Antoine French entomologists Presidents of the Société entomologique de France 19th-century French physicians Zoologists with author abbreviations Scientists from Paris 1816 births 1889 deaths