Léon Diguet (25 July 1859,

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...

– 31 August 1926,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) was a French naturalist. He studied science at the

Muséum 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 loc ...

in Paris, where he was influenced by scientists that included biologist

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (10 February 1810 – 12 January 1892) was a French biologist. Life He was born at Berthézène, in the commune of Valleraugue (Gard), the son of a Protestant farmer. He studied science and then medic ...

, zoologist

Alphonse Milne-Edwards Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Paris, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who se ...

, and anthropologist Ernest Hamy. From 1889 to 1892, he was employed as a chemical engineer at the French-owned

El Boleo El Boleo is a copper-cobalt-zinc-manganese deposit located adjacent to the port city of Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur in Mexico. It includes a historic open pit copper mine, as well as underground workings. Mining began in the 1860s, and con ...

mining installation in

Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

. During that period, he explored the peninsula's interior, collecting natural history specimens for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Afterwards, from 1893 to 1914, he made six more trips to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

as an explorer and collector: * 1. A return trip to

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

in 1893–1894. * 2. Jalisco and the territory of

Tepic Tepic () is the capital and largest city of the western Mexican state of Nayarit, as well as the seat of the Tepic Municipality. Located in the central part of the state, it stands at an altitude of above sea level, on the banks of the Rí ...

(a trip in which he conducted research of the

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California ...

and Cora peoples). * 3. San Luis Potosi,

Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...

and northern Jalisco. * 4. Puebla,

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

and

Tehuantepec Tehuantepec (, in full, Santo Domingo Tehuantepec) is a city and municipality in the southeast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Tehuantepec District in the west of the Istmo Region. The area was important in pre Hispanic peri ...

. * 5. Michoacán and the State of Mexico. * 6. Another expedition to Baja California and Jalisco.Mexican Suite: A History of Photography in Mexico by Olivier Debroise
/ref> As a naturalist in Mexico, he amassed an eclectic collection of insects, cacti, orchids, minerals, crustaceans, and other specimens. He performed archaeological studies in the

Mixtec The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture w ...

- Zapotec region and at

Ixtlán del Río Ixtlán del Río is both a municipality and municipal seat in the Mexican state of Nayarit. In 2018 the population of the municipality was 33,289 (35,180 in the municipal seat) and the total area was 581.4 km². Ixtlán, as it is known to l ...

, as well as pioneering investigations of the burials and rock art in central and southern Baja California. He also conducted historical research of

cochineal The cochineal ( , ; ''Dactylopius coccus'') is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America through North Americ ...

, studied the

Huichol language The Huichol language ( hch, Wixárika) is an indigenous language of Mexico which belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self-designation ''Wixaritari''), whose mountainous terri ...

, analyzed the different types of

agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...

and investigated the properties of

jojoba Jojoba (; botanical name: ''Simmondsia chinensis'')also commonly called goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bushis native to the Southwestern United States. ''Simmondsia chinensis'' is the sole specie ...

. On his journeys, he took many photographs of the country. the negatives later being housed at the

Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne ...

in Paris. The genus '' Diguetia'' bears his name, and his name is also associated with numerous zoological and botanical species, two examples being: ''Sceloporus digueti'' (synonym '' Sceloporus orcutti'', the granite spiny lizard) and ''Ferrocactus diguetii'' (a species of

barrel cactus Barrel cacti are various members of the two genera ''Echinocactus'' and ''Ferocactus'', endemic to the deserts of Southwestern North America southward to north central Mexico. Some of the largest specimens are found in the Sonoran Desert in So ...

Partial list of publications

* "23 phot. du Mexique (Etats de Jalisco et Sinaloa) en 1892 par Léon Diguet, donateur en 1893". * "Note sur la pictographie de la Basse-Californie." ''L'Anthropologie'' 6:160-175. 1895. * "Rapport sur une mission scientifique dans la Basse-Californie." ''Nouvelle Archives des Missions Scientifiques et Littéraires'' 9:1-53. 1899. * "La sierra du Nayarit et ses indigénes", 1899. * "Les cactacées utiles du Mexique", published posthumously by

André Guillaumin André Louis Joseph Edmond Armand Guillaumin (21 June 1885 in Arrou – 29 May 1974 in Athis-Mons) was a French botanist. He obtained his license in biology in 1906 and began work in the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' in Paris in ...

in 1928. * "Fotografias del Nayar y de California, 1893-1900". México : Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos de la Embajada de Francia en México : Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1991.(Léon Diguet; Jean A Meyer).WorldCat Identities
(publications)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diguet, Leon French naturalists French geologists French archaeologists Archaeologists of the Baja California peninsula 20th-century French botanists Scientists from Le Havre 1859 births 1926 deaths 19th-century French botanists