Jean Théodore Lacordaire
Encyclopedia
Recey-sur-Ource
Recey-sur-Ource is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.-Geography:The village lies in the middle of the commune, on the right bank of the Ource, which flows northwestward through the middle of the commune.-Population:-Personalities:...
, Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or is a department in the eastern part of France.- History :Côte-d'Or is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was formed from part of the former province of Burgundy.- Geography :...
- 18 July 1870, Liege) was a Belgian entomologist of French extraction.
In spite of his obvious interest in natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, his family sent him to Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
to study "le droit", or the law. In 1824, he embarked for Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
where he became a commercial salesman. He traveled widely in South America using every opportunity to carry out many observations on local fauna.
Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
suggested he come to Paris in 1830. There he met Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis...
, Jean Victoire Audouin
Jean Victoire Audouin
thumb|Victor AudouinJean Victoire Audouin , sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, ornithologist and malacologist.Audouin was born in Paris and studied medicine...
, and André Marie Constant Duméril
André Marie Constant Duméril
André Marie Constant Duméril was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became professor of herpetology and ichthyology...
and took part in the foundation of the Société Entomologique de France
Société entomologique de France
The Société entomologique de France, or French Entomological Society, is devoted to the study of insects. It was founded in 1832.The society was created by eighteen Parisian entomologists on January 31, 1832...
. He went to Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
at the end of 1830 to collect natural history specimens, returning to France in 1832. In 1835, he became professor of zoology at the University of Liège
University of Liège
The University of Liège , in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. Its official language is French.-History:...
where he succeeded Henri-Maurice Gaède
Heinrich Moritz Gaede
Heinrich Moritz Gaede, also Henri-Maurice Gaéde was a German naturalist and entomologist.He was a Professor in Lüttich and at the University of Liège....
(1795–1834). In 1837, he became also professor of comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
. He occupied himself actively with the collections of zoology of the natural history museum of the university from his nomination and greatly enriched it. On his death, the natural history museum included a collection of 12,000 species, with beautiful series of ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
and ichthyology
Ichthyology
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
. From 1834 to 1838, he published Introduction à l'entomologie, comprenant les principes généraux de l'anatomie et de la physiologie des insectes, (Introduction to entomology, including the general principles of the anatomy and the physiology of the insects) in three volumes. In 1835, he published Faune entomologique des environs de Paris (Entomological fauna of the district surrounding of Paris). But his best work is Histoire naturelle des insectes, ″Genera″ des Coléoptères (1854–1876), an immense work of 13 volumes which his death brought to a close. This work was eventually finished by Félicien Chapuis
Félicien Chapuis
Félicien Chapuis was a Belgian doctor and entomologist.He specialised in Coleoptera and finished the text of Genera des coléoptères by Théodore Lacordaire when Lacordaire died....
.
In 1868, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
.
One of his three brothers, Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire
Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire
Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire , often styled Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, was a French ecclesiastic, preacher, journalist and political activist...
, was a Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
priest and an important liberal Catholic polemicist.