Jean Baptiste Boisduval

Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval (June 17, 1799–December 30, 1879) was a French lepidopterist and physician. He developed the Boisduval scale and identified many new species of butterflies. One of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France he was the co-founder of the Société Entomologique de France. Early in his career, he was interested in Coleoptera and allied himself with both Lacordaire and Latreille. He was the curator of the Pierre Françoise Marie Auguste Dejean collection in Paris and described many species of beetles as well as butterflies and moths resulting from the voyages of the "Astrolabe" the expedition ship of Jean-François de Galaup, count de La Pérouse and the "Coquille" , that of Louis Isidore Duperrey. Boisduval's Elateridae are in the Natural History Museum, London and the types of Curculionidae in Brussels Natural History Museum. His Lepidoptera were sold to Charles Oberthür . The Sphingidae are in the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Works

Jean Baptiste Alphonse DeChauffour Boisduval and John Eatton Le Conte, 1829-1837 " Histoire général et iconographie des lepidoptérès et des chenilles de l’Amerique septentrionale" (in English, "General history and illustrations of the Lepidoptera and caterpillars of Northern America") published in Paris. The work was not completed until 1837.

Jules Dumont d'Urville Ed. Voyage de l'Astrolabe. "Faune entomologique de l'Océanie par le Dr Boisduval. Tome 1 : Lepidoptéres" (1832); Tome 2 Coléoptères, Hémiptères, Orthoptères Névroptères, Hyménoptères et Diptères (1835).

External links

* [http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/abbot/about.html Boisduval Watercolours]
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ Boisduval's major works Online at Gallica]
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/butmoth/ NHM Database]