Pierre Antoine Delalande (27 March 1787 – 27 June 1823) was a French naturalist,
taxidermist
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...
,
explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
Pierre Antoine Delalande was the son of a taxidermist in the
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
in Paris. He was employed at the museum from a young age, where he became an assistant of the naturalist
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (15 April 177219 June 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories. ...
. He took painting classes from the Flemish animal painter
in 1808 on a zoological collecting trip to Portugal, and was sent to the coast of Provence in 1813 to collect fishes and molluscs. He traveled to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
in 1816 to collect specimens for the museum.
In 1818 he began an expedition to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
with his nephew
Jules Verreaux
Jules Pierre Verreaux (24 August 1807 – 7 September 1873) was a French botanist and ornithologist and a professional collector of and trader in natural history specimens. He was the brother of Édouard Verreaux and nephew of Pierre Antoine Dela ...
, who was around 12 years old at the time, to collect specimens. Delalande and Verreaux travelled and collected in South Africa for three years. On their return in 1821, they took back an astounding 131,405 specimens, mostly plant material. Their collection included 288 mammals, 2205 birds, 322 reptiles, 265 fish, 3875 shellfish, and various human skulls and skeletons from a
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
cemetery and from the 22 April 1819 Battle of
Grahamstown
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...
between the British forces under Colonel Willshire and the
Xhosa
Xhosa may refer to:
* Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa
* Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people
See als ...
under
Nxele
Makhanda , also spelled Makana and also known as ''Nxele'' ("the left-handed"), ( – 25 December 1819) was a Xhosa witch doctor. He served as a top advisor to Chief Ndlambe. During the Xhosa Wars, on the 22nd of April, 1819, he instigated an ...
.
He is honoured in the specific names of the butterfly, ''
Papilio delalandei
''Papilio delalandei'' is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is endemic to Madagascar.
Taxonomy
''Papilio delalandei'' is a member of the ''dardanus'' species-group. The
members of the clade are
*''Papilio dardanus'' Brown, 1776
*''Pap ...
Chioninia delalandii
''Chioninia delalandii'' (English: Delalande's skink) is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_l ...
'', ''
Nucras lalandii
''Nucras lalandii'', also known commonly as Delalande's sandveld lizard, Delalande's spotted lizard, and Laland's lizard, is a species of wall lizard in the family of true lizards ( Lacertidae). The species is native to Southern Africa.
Etymol ...
blindsnake
The Scolecophidia, commonly known as blind snakes or thread snakes, are an infraorder of snakes. They range in length from . All are fossorial (adapted for burrowing). Five families and 39 genera are recognized. The Scolecophidia infraorder is m ...
Delalande Delalande is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Michel Richard Delalande (1657–1726), French Baroque composer and organist
* Pierre Antoine Delalande
Pierre Antoine Delalande (27 March 1787 – 27 June 1823) was a French nat ...