Abstract
PIERRE ANDRÉ LATREILLE, the brilliant French naturalist, who devoted himself to the study of entomology and made considerable additions to our knowledge of that branch of natural science, died in Paris a hundred years ago on February 6 at the age of seventy-one years. Latreille was born on November 29, 1762, at Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the department of Corrèze. At the age of sixteen years he entered the Collège Lemoine, Paris, where he studied for the church. After he had taken orders in 1786, he retired to Brive, where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of insects. He returned to Paris in 1788, and during the Revolution was imprisoned at Bordeaux; but was released on account of the interest shown in his entomological studies. His great work, “Précis des Caractères génériques des Insectes, Disposés dans un Ordre naturel”—an important step towards a truly natural system of entomology—was published in 1796, and led to his being appointed to arrange and take charge of the entomological collection at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle (Jardin des Plantes) in Paris. He became professor of natural history at the Museum in 1830, and succeeded Lamarck as professor of zoology. Latreille wrote the entomological part of Cuvier's “Règne Animal”. His other important works are “Salamandres”, “Singes”, “Crustacés et Insectes”, “Reptiles”, “Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum”, “Considerations générales sur l'Ordre naturel des Animaux”, “Families naturelles du Règne Animal”, and “Cours d'Entomologie”.
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Pierre André Latreille. Nature 131, 159 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131159b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131159b0