Juan Lembeye (1816 in Ferrol – 1889 in Culleredo) was a Spanish
naturalist.
Lembeye was the author of ''Aves de la Isla de Cuba'' (1850), the only book of bird illustrations to be published in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. Born in
Galicia, Lembeye lived in Cuba from the 1830s to the 1860s, and became interested in birds while he was there. The majority of the 38 drawings in Lembeye's book were copied from the royal octavo plates of
John James Audubon
John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...
; in some cases, he even copied the plants depicted in the background.
Bee hummingbird
The bee hummingbird, zunzuncito or Helena hummingbird (''Mellisuga helenae'') is a species of hummingbird, native to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. It is the world's smallest bird.
Description
The bee hummingbird is the smallest living ...
was described in his book first time, ''Mellisuga helenae'' Gundlach
Lembeye discovered
Cuban solitaire
The Cuban solitaire (''Myadestes elisabeth''), also known as the Cuban nightingale, is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is endemic to Cuba.
Its natural habitat is Cuban moist forests#Montane forests, montane moist forests. It is thre ...
(''Myadestes elisabeth'') and
yellow-headed warbler (''Teretistris fernandinae''), and is commemorated in the specific name of
Cuban gnatcatcher, ''Polioptila lembeyei''. His colleagues included
Juan Gundlach
Juan Cristóbal Gundlach (17 July 1810 in Marburg – 14 March 1896 in Havana), born Johannes Christoph Gundlach was a Cuban naturalist and taxonomist.
Biography
Gundlach graduated from Marburg University, where his father was professor of phys ...
and
Victor López Seoane.
1816 births
1889 deaths
Cuban ornithologists
Spanish ornithologists
Spanish naturalists
{{Cuba-scientist-stub