René Jeannel (23 March 1879 – 20 February 1965) 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 ...

.Jean-Jacques Amigo, « Jeannel (René, Gabriel, Marie) », in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises, vol. 3 Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, Perpignan, Publications de l'olivier, 2017, 915 p. () He was director of 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 ...

from 1945 to 1951. Jeannel's most important work was on the insect fauna of

caves A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

, France and in the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

, Romania. He also worked in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Jeannel specialised in

Leiodidae Leiodidae is a family of beetles with around 3800 described species found worldwide. Members of this family are commonly called round fungus beetles due to the globular shape of many species, although some are more elongated in shape. They are g ...

(then Silphidae or Catopidae) but authored a large number of papers and works on other

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

. He was a member of the Romanian Academy. As the son of a medical officer in the French military, Jeannel was expected to succeed his father. However, after developing an interest, during his studies in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, in cave exploration and especially cave fauna, he began considering a career in biological science instead. His interest was especially stimulated when he discovered two new cave beetles in the Grotte d’Oxibar (named after him by

Abeille de Perrin Abeille may refer to: Ships * HMS ''Abeille'' (1796), a ship of the Royal Navy *'' Abeille Bourbon'', a high sea tow vessel *'' Abeille Flandre'', a high sea tug of the French navy *'' Abeille Liberté'', a salvage tug *'' Abeille Provence'', a ...

: '' Bathyscia jeanneli'' and ''

Aphaenops jeanneli ''Aphaenops jeanneli'' is a species of beetle in the subfamily Trechinae. It was described by Abeille de Perrin Abeille may refer to: Ships * HMS ''Abeille'' (1796), a ship of the Royal Navy *'' Abeille Bourbon'', a high sea tow vessel *'' Abe ...

''.Schilthuizen, M. 2015
Nature's Nether Regions
Penguin In 1905 he began a life-long friendship and collaboration with Romanian biologist Emile Racovitza. In the first 17 years alone they jointly explored 1,400 caves in southern Europe and North Africa and published descriptions of the caves and their fauna. When Racovitza was invited to found a biospeleological institute in Cluj, Jeannel became his deputy director until 1927, when Jeannel obtained a chair in entomology in the Paris museum. Despite his administrative positions, Jeannel remained a productive scientist. In 1911, when he published his 641-page, 657-illustration doctoral thesis on

Leptodirini Leptodirini is a tribe of small carrion beetles in the family Leiodidae Leiodidae is a family of beetles with around 3800 described species found worldwide. Members of this family are commonly called round fungus beetles due to the globular s ...

(then called Bathysciinae), he had already produced more than 30 papers. During the rest of his career, he added another 500 scientific publications to this total, together amounting to more than 20,000 published pages—mostly on cave insects and all illustrated by himself. Jeannel's most important contribution to taxonomy was the fact that he realised the potential of using the

genitalia A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

for species identification and classification. Genitalia evolve faster than external parts of the body and therefore the differences between species are greater. In his book ''l'Édéage'' (1955), he summarized all the insights the study of the

aedeagus An aedeagus (plural aedeagi) is a reproductive organ of male arthropods through which they secrete sperm from the testes during copulation with a female. It can be thought of as the insect equivalent of a mammal's penis, though the comparison ...

(the term used for the male beetle genital apparatus) had afforded him.

Works

* Paris, Libraire A. Schulz (1911). * "The Fauna of the Caves of France") (1940). * "The Origins of Terrestrial Fauna") (1942). * (1911–1912). , 1–6. (1913–1919). * . Mémoires du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (N.S.), 1: 1-435. (1936) * Revue Française d’Entomologie, 8: 101-110. (1942) * Publications du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 16: 1-155. (1955)

References

External links

NDSU biographical and type information

Archive.org
Digital version of Paris, Libraire A. Schulz (1911) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeannel, Rene French entomologists Presidents of the Société entomologique de France 1879 births 1965 deaths National_Museum_of_Natural_History_(France)_people