Guillaume-Antoine Olivier (; 19 January 1756, Les Arcs near

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

– 1 October 1814,

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

) was a French

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and naturalist.

Life

Olivier studied medicine in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, where he became good friends with

Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (28 February 1761 – 17 January 1807) was a French naturalist who contributed primarily to botany. He was born in Montpellier, where he was educated, and travelled to Morocco, Spain, the Canary Islands, and South ...

. With

Jean Guillaume Bruguière Jean Guillaume Bruguière (19 July 1749 – 3 October 1798) was a French physician, zoologist and diplomat. Biography Bruguière was born in Montpellier on 19 July 1749.Comptes rendus du Congrès national des sociétés savantes: Section des s ...

and

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...

, he collaborated in the creation of ''Journal d'Histoire Naturelle'' (1792). Afterwards, he served as a naturalist on a 6-year scientific journey that took him to

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

. He returned to France in 1798 with a large collection of natural history specimens from his travels. Later, he was associated with the ''

École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort The National veterinary school of Alfort ( or ''ENVA'') is a French public institution of scientific research and higher education in veterinary medicine, located in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne, close to Paris. It is operated under the superv ...

'', where in 1811, he was appointed 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

. Olivier was a close friend of

Johan Christian Fabricius Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is cons ...

and a patron of

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) 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 ...

. Although primarily an entomologist, Olivier also worked in the scientific field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

, describing several new species of Asian lizards. He also described a few plant species, including ''

Prunus arabica ''Prunus arabica'' is a species of wild almond found across the Middle East. It is a broomlike shrub typically 0.75 to 2m tall, with brown bark. Its leaves have a 5-8 mm petiole and the leaf blades are 15 to 44 mm long and 3 to 10 mm wide. Its i ...

'' and ''

Quercus libani ''Quercus libani'', the Lebanon oak, is a species of oak native to the eastern Mediterranean in western Asia, including in Lebanon, western Syria, northeastern Israel, eastern Turkey, and northern Iraq and Iran. Description ''Quercus libani'' i ...

''.

Works

Olivier was the author of ''Coléoptères'' Paris Baudouin 1789–1808 (11 editions), ''Entomologie, ou histoire naturelle des Insectes'' (1808) and ''Le Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman, l'Égypte et la Perse'' (1807). He was a contributor to ''

Encyclopédie Méthodique The ''Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre des matières'' ("Methodical Encyclopedia by Order of Subject Matter") was published between 1782 and 1832 by the French publisher Charles Joseph Panckoucke, his son-in-law Henri Agasse, and the latter's ...

''.

Legacy

Today, most of his collection is housed at the

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loca ...

in Paris. A

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of lizard, ''

Mesalina olivieri ''Mesalina olivieri'', also known commonly as Olivier's sand lizard, is a species of sand-dwelling lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to North Africa and the Middle East. Etymology The specific name, ''olivieri'', is in ...

'', is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Olivieri", pp. 194–195).

References

External links

*Olivier GA (1800). ''Voyage dans l'empire Othoman, l'Égypte et la Perse, fait par ordre du gouvernement, pendant les six premières années de la république''
Vol I

Vol II
- Vol III-

Vol IV Volume Four, Volume 4, or Volume IV may refer to: Music *'' Lucio Battisti Vol. 4'', Lucio Battisti's fourth album, released in 1971 * ''Vol. 4'' (Black Sabbath album), Black Sabbath's fourth studio album, released in 1972 * ''Volume Four'', a 1992 ...

Vol V

Vol VI
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Olivier, Guillaume-Antoine 1756 births 1814 deaths Coleopterists French entomologists French carcinologists French arachnologists Scientists from Toulon Members of the French Academy of Sciences French expatriates in Iran French expatriates in Turkey French expatriates in Cyprus French expatriates in Egypt