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Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean

Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean
Comte Dejean
Born(1780-08-10)10 August 1780
Amiens
Died17 March 1845(1845-03-17) (aged 64)
Paris
Military career
Allegiance France
BranchCavalry
Service years1795-1845
RankGeneral de division
ConflictsFrench Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars
AwardsGrand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Knight of Saint Louis
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsSociété entomologique de France
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ fʁɑ̃swa maʁi oɡyst dəʒɑ̃]; 10 August 1780 – 17 March 1845), was a French soldier and entomologist. Dejean described a large number of beetles in a series of catalogues.

Origins and early career

Dejean was born in Amiens on 10 August 1780, the only child of Jean François Aimé Dejean then a captain in the engineers, and his first wife Alexandrine-Marie-Elisabeth Le Boucher d’Ailly.[1] By the age of 13 he had already begun his lifelong interest in entomology, collecting Lepidoptera specimens with André Marie Constant Duméril, a childhood friend six years his senior.[2] One summer they were joined in this endeavour by Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel, and the three became lifelong friends.[3] In March 1795, with the War of the First Coalition raging, he followed his father into a military career.[4]

Dejean's father was, at that point, Inspector General of Fortifications for the Army of Sambre and Meuse and took on his 14-year-old son as an unofficial aide-de-camp. A commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry came on 5 August 1796, and as lieutenant a year later. Throughout this period he continued to work as his father's aide as the latter took command of the Army of the North.[5] It was during his time in the Army of the North that he abandoned the collection of butterflies, turning to the study of beetles that would become the main passion of his life.[6]

September 1797 saw a reversal in Dejean's fortunes as his father was ousted from command over his refusal to back the Coup of 18 Fructidor. He managed to retain postings in the 8th Demi-brigade and then the 28th Line until his father once again came into favour with the establishment of the Consulate and became a Councillor of State. Called from his regiment to once again become his father's aide, he did so in Italy following the Marengo campaign and back in Paris when he became Minister for the Administration of War. Finally, he transferred to the cavalry becoming a captain in the 20th Dragoons on 3 October 1803.[5]

Throughout this period, Dejean continued to collect coleoptera specimens, and produced the first catalogue of his collection in the latter part of 1802, listing just over 900 species of beetle.[7]

Career

A soldier during the Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of lieutenant general and aide de campe to Napoleon. He amassed vast collections of Coleoptera, some even collected on the battlefield at Waterloo. At the Battle of Alcanizas he took time out of battle to pick up a beetle that he pinned on to cork on the inside of his helmet. After victory, he was pleased to find the beetle intact.[8] He listed 22,399 species in his cabinets in 1837—at the time, the greatest collection of Coleoptera in the world. In 1802, he began publishing a catalogue of his vast collection, including 22,000 species names. Dejean was an opponent of the Principle of Priority in nomenclature. "I have made it a rule always to preserve the name most generally used, and not the oldest one; because it seems to me that general usage should always be followed and that it is harmful to change what has already been established". Dejean acted accordingly and often introduced in litteris names, given by himself to replace those already published by other authors. They became invalid. Dejean was president of the Société entomologique de France for the year 1840. In 1834, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died on 17 March 1845.

Family

Dejean married Adèle Barthélemy (d. 1872) on 17 July 1802, the couple had five children:[1]

  • Adèle Jeanne (1803–1860), married M. Ardènc
  • Benjamin Barthélemy (1804–1885), Prefect, Director of Police, Councillor of State, Deputy for Aude
  • Pierre Charles (1807–1872) General, Councillor of State, interim Minister for War
  • Dieudonné Marie Louis (1809–1881), baron Dejean, lieutenant-colonel
  • Stéphanie Emma Élisabeth (1815–1878), married Jacques-Alphonse Mahul


Works

  • Catalogue des Coléoptères de la collection d'Auguste Dejean (1802)
  • Catalogue de la collection de Coléoptères de M. le Baron Dejean (1821)
  • Catalogue des Coléoptères de la collection de M. le Comte Dejean (1833–1836)
  • Catalogue des Coléoptères de la collection de M. le Comte Dejean. Troisième édition, revue, corrigée et augmentée. (1836–1837)
  • with Pierre André Latreille Histoire naturelle et iconographie des insectes coléoptères d'Europe Paris : Crevot, 1822. digitised at Gallica.
  • Spécies Général des Coléoptères, de la collection de M. le Comte Dejean (1825–1838)

Beetles

References

  1. ^ a b Révérend, Albert (1902). Titres, Anoblissements et Pairies de la Restauration 1814-1830 (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Champion. p. 300.
  2. ^ Bousquet, Yves; Bouchard, Patrice (2013). "The Genera in the Second Catalogue (1833–1836) of Dejean's Coleoptera Collection". Zookeys (282). doi:10.3897/zookeys.282.4401. PMC 3677338.
  3. ^ Dow, R. P. (1914). "The Early French Coleopterists". Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society. 9 (1): 10–13, 37–39.
  4. ^ Six, Georges (1934). "Dejean (Pierre-François-Marie-Auguste, comte)". Dictionnaire biographique des généraux et amiraux français de la Révolution et de l'Empire: 1792–1814 (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie Historique et Nobilaire. pp. 310–311.
  5. ^ a b Linck, Tony (1993). Napoleon's Generals: The Waterloo Campaign. Chicago: Emperor's Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 0-9626655-8-4.
  6. ^ * Boisduval, J. O. (1845). "Notice sur M. le Comte Dejean". Annales de la Société entomologique de France. 2 (in French). 3: 499–520.
  7. ^ Madge, R. B. (October 1988). "The publication dates of Dejean's catalogues". Archives of Natural History. 15 (3): 317–321. doi:10.3366/anh.1988.15.3.317.
  8. ^ Elias, Scott A. (2014). "A Brief History of the Changing Occupations and Demographics of Coleopterists from the 18th Through the 20th Century". Journal of the History of Biology. 47 (2): 213–242. doi:10.1007/s10739-013-9365-9. ISSN 0022-5010. PMID 23928824. S2CID 254545525.


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