French entomologists

Albert_Jean_Baptiste_Marie_Vayssière

Albert Jean Baptiste Marie Vayssière (8 July 1854, Avignon – 13 January 1942, Marseille) was a French scientist, a biologist, specifically a malacologist and entomologist, i.e. someone who studies mollusks, and insects. Within the Mollusca, Vayssière specialized in sea slugs and bubble snails, i.e. marine opisthobranch gastropods. He made significant contributions towards a better understanding of the general biology, phylogenetic relationships, biogeography and ecological distribution of the group.From 1873 to 1883, Vayssière served as a préparateur to the Faculté des Sciences at Marseille, where afterwards he was maître de conférences (lecturer). He later served as a professor of zoology, and in 1915 he was appointed director of the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Marseille.Vayssière was also interested in entomology, in particular, the field of agricultural entomology.

Eugène_Simon

Eugène Louis Simon (French pronunciation: [øʒɛn lwi simɔ̃]; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4,000 species.

Charles_Pérez

Charles Pérez (19 May 1873 in Bordeaux – 22 September 1952 in Paris) was a French zoologist best known for his research of marine invertebrates and insects. His father, Jean Pérez (1833-1914), was a zoology professor at Bordeaux, and his father's sister was married to Belgian malacologist Paul Pelseneer (1863-1945).
From 1898 to 1902, he was an agrégé préparateur of zoology at the École Normale Supérieure, obtaining his doctorate of sciences in 1902. Afterwards, he worked as a lecturer to the faculty of sciences in Bordeaux, where in 1904, he was appointed professor of zoology and animal physiology. In 1909 he returned to Paris, where he eventually became an associate professor at the Sorbonne.In 1919 he was named adjoint-director of the zoological station at Wimereux, and in 1921 became director of the laboratory at Roscoff. From 1921 onward, he was a professor of zoology at the Sorbonne. He was a member of several learned sciences, including the Académie des sciences (1935–52) and the Société zoologique de France (president 1924).

Jean_Pierre_Mégnin

Jean Pierre Mégnin (16 January 1828 – 31 December 1905) was a French army veterinarian and entomologist. He is best known for his work with dogs in the field of cynology. He also contributed to the field of forensic entomology. He led experiments which unveiled the eight distinct waves of insect succession on corpses exposed to air. Similarly, he showed two waves of insect succession on corpses that are buried.

Paul_Marchal

Paul Alfred Daniel Marchal (27 September 1862, Paris, – 2 March 1942, Paris) was a French entomologist. He was president of the French Entomological Society (Société entomologique de France) in 1907. He was president of the French Zoological Society (Société zoologique de France) in 1909.
In 1883 Marchal received his undergraduate degree from the Academy of Paris (University of France). In 1889 he received a doctorate in medicine and in 1892 a doctorate in science, from the same institution.
Marchal worked for the French government in Paris as an entomologist for the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1894 he became chief-of-staff of the entomology section, and in 1910 he became Director of the entomology station in Paris. In 1898 he started teaching at the Institut national agronomique (National Institute of Agriculture) and in 1900 he was appointed as a professor of applied zoology and agriculture.
In 1912, based on the American experience with Novius cardinalis and the earlier work of Raymond Poutiers, he made the first release of acclimatized ladybugs in Europe, in Alpes-Maritimes in southeastern France, for the biological control of cochineal scale.Marchal was a member of the French Academy of Sciences from 1912 until his death in 1942.

Joseph_Alexandre_Laboulbène

Joseph Alexandre Laboulbène (25 August 1825 Agen – 7 December 1898, Paris) was a French physician and entomologist.
A friend of the entomologist Jean-Marie Léon Dufour (1780-1865), he studied medicine in the University of Paris and was awarded the title Docteur in 1854. He taught in the medical faculty until 1879.
Laboulbène was interested in harmful insects notably in the Order Diptera. The order of mushrooms Laboulbeniales, is dedicated to him, by Engler in 1898.In 1853, Laboulbenia which is a genus of fungi in the family Laboulbeniaceae, was named in his honour.

Alfred_Grandidier

Alfred Grandidier (20 December 1836 – 13 September 1921) was a French naturalist and explorer.
From a very wealthy family, at the age of 20, he and his brother, Ernest Grandidier (1833–1912), undertook a voyage around the world. At first they were led by the astronomer and physicist Pierre Jules César Janssen (1824–1907), but when Janssen fell sick and had to return to France after about six months, the brothers continued the journey.
They visited South America in 1858 and 1859 and in particular the Andes, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. During this voyage they gathered a significant collection of specimens which were analyzed, in 1860, by Ernest.
The two brothers parted ways after this. Ernest Grandidier went to China and collected a vast number of specimens which are now in the Louvre and the Guimet museum. Alfred travelled to India, reaching it in 1863. He had intended to explore the high plateau of Tibet, but was prevented by a severe attack of fever.
Grandidier travelled to Zanzibar to recuperate, remaining some time and making important collections and publishing an account of his findings. He then visited the island of Réunion and in 1865 made his first visit to Madagascar. He became devoted to the study of the island, revisiting in 1866 and 1868. He finally returned permanently to France in 1870. During his explorations he crossed the island three times, travelling 3000 kilometers in the interior and 2500 along the coast. He made observations which resulted in the production of a map of the island used in future expeditions.

After returning to France he began to work on his great work, L'Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar. This work was undertaken in cooperation with others such as Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Leon Vaillant. This work ran to 40 volumes, the final volumes published posthumously by his son Guillaume Grandidier. He described about 50 new species of reptiles and amphibians.Alfred Grandidier's work drew the attention of the French government to Madagascar, which it would annex at the end of 1890.
He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1885 and was the president of the French Geographical Society from 1901 to 1905. The Royal Geographical Society awarded him their Founder's Medal in 1906.

Émile_Brumpt

Alexandre Joseph Émile Brumpt (10 March 1877, in Paris – 8 July 1951) was a French parasitologist.He studied zoology and parasitology in Paris, obtaining his degree in science in 1901, and his medical doctorate in 1906. In 1919 he succeeded Raphaël Blanchard (1857-1919) as professor of parasitology to the Faculté de Médecine de Paris, a position he maintained until 1948. Much of his career was spent performing research in Africa and Latin America.
Brumpt is credited for introducing a technique known as xenodiagnosis into parasitological research. In 1935, he described Plasmodium gallinaceum, an avian malarial parasite that infects chickens and other fowl. He also conducted important research involving the African tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) as a biological vector for trypanosomiasis. In addition, he did extensive studies of the diseases: schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, onchocerciasis and leishmaniasis.
He described Blastocystis hominis and Entamoeba dispar. The latter species helped to explain why most people who appeared to be infected with Entamoeba histolytica were asymptomatic. However, because there are no morphological differences between the two species, his proposal was largely ignored for over 50 years before being proven correct using molecular techniques.The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Prix Savigny for 1910. A number of parasitic species bear his name, including Plasmodium brumpti and Xenocoeloma brumpti. Also, a genus of phlebotomine sand flies, Brumptomyia, and a species of Corsican mosquito, Culex brumpti, are named after him.
Brumpt's best known written work is Précis de Parasitologie, which was published in six editions between 1910 and 1949. He was the author of many scientific papers, including several on the Anopheles mosquito and its relationship to malaria. He was the President of the Société zoologique de France in 1922. With Maurice Neveu-Lemaire and Maurice Langeron, he founded in 1923 the parasitological journal Annales de Parasitologie Humaine et Comparée, now continued as Parasite.