Jean Théodore Lacordaire

Jean Théodore Lacordaire ( born 1 February 1801 in Châtillon -sur -Seine, † July 19, 1870 in Liège ) was a Belgian entomologist of French descent, who is best known for his depictions of insects in South America. He was a brother of Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire Dominican.

Lacordaire studied law in Le Havre in 1824 and traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to establish himself as a businessman. He traveled to the Pampas and after that it led him to Uruguay and later to Brazil in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Another trip then led from Santiago, Chile, to Montevideo, Uruguay. the trips he used to zoological observations. In 1830 he returned to France and attended at the invitation of Georges Cuvier Paris, where he met Pierre André Latreille, Jean Victoire Audouin and André Marie Constant Duméril and was involved in the founding of the Entomological Society of France. However, he traveled in the same year for two more years to Cayenne, where he extensively collected again on zoological field. After his return to France Lacordaire began to describe the data collected by him insects and post trip reports. In 1835 he became professor of zoology at the University of Liège, where he remained until his death in 1870. He also devoted himself in particular the increase of the zoological collections of the University. In 1837 he was also Professor of Comparative Anatomy.

His monumental work Histoire naturelle des insectes lists to the 6000 beetle genera.

In 1868 he became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Writings

• Histoire naturelle des insectes. Genera of coleopteres, Paris, Roret, 1854-1876 in 12 parts plus atlas ( the first 9 parts of Lacordaire, continued from 1870 by Félicien Chapuis )
• Introduction à l' Entomology, 2 volumes and atlas, Paris, Roret, 1834-1838
• Entomologique Faune des environs de Paris, 1835

• Belgian
• Entomologist
• University teachers ( University of Liège )
• Born in 1801
• Died in 1870
• Man