Constantin Wesmael (4 October 1798, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

– 26 October 1872, near to

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode () or Sint-Joost-ten-Node (), often simply called Saint-Josse or Sint-Joost, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the C ...

) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

entomologist.

Life

Of modest origin, he was granted a bursary to study law. He taught, initially,

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

in Charleroi before teaching sciences at the Athenaeum of Brussels. He was, next a professor of

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

at the school of

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

surgeon and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. He specialized in

Ichneumonidae The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species cur ...

Collection

According to a note made by Baron de Sélys Longchamps, Wesmael gave his

Braconidae The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis ...

to Mr. Haliday, without knowing however that this Irish scientist would be later established in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, and that after his death his collection would pass via

Edward Perceval Wright Edward Percival (Perceval) Wright (27 December 1834, Donnybrook – 2 March 1910) FRGSI was an Irish ophthalmic surgeon, botanist and zoologist. Family, education and career He was the eldest son of barrister, Edward Wright and Charlotte Wrigh ...

to Dublin Museum. However, in the copy of the biography of Wesmael by Selys, Dr. Jacobs noted next to the sentence written by Selys (p. 235) (He gave his Braconides to Mr. Haliday), this note:: Error! they were found by me... Both statements are true and Wesmael's Braconidae are divided between the National Museum of Ireland and the

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...

. Some are also in

La Specola The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in Florence, central Italy, located next to the Pitti Palace. The name '' Specola'' means observatory, a reference to the astronomical obser ...

Museum in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

having been given by Haliday to Camillo Rondani. Hesitating about his decision to give his collection of Ichneumonidae to the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...

he finally entrusted it to

Works

*''Monographie des Braconides de Belgique'' 252p.+ 70p. + 166 p. - 4 pl. (1 hand coloured) 1835–1838. A very rare work

*''Remarques critiques sur diverses espèces d'Ichneumons de la coll. Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst, Gravenhorst'' 99 p. 1859 * ''Tentamen dispositionis methodicae Ichneumonum Belgii'' 4to - 238 p. - with 1 lithographed plate 1844.

References

* Alain Pauly (2001). Bibliographie des Hyménoptères de Belgique précédée de notices biographiques (1827-2000). Première partie, ''Notes faunistiques de Gembloux'', 44 : 37–84.

External links

Account of Belgian Entomologists with portrait and account of Wesmael
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wesmael, Constantin Belgian entomologists 1798 births 1872 deaths Scientists from Brussels 19th-century Belgian zoologists