René Oberthür (1852,
Rennes
Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
– 27 April 1944) was a French
entomologist
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
who specialised in
Coleoptera
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
.
With his brother
Charles Oberthür he worked in "Imprimerie Oberthür" the very successful printing business founded by his father
François-Charles Oberthür.
René and Charles supplied free bibles, missals, catechisms and other printwork to missionaries in exchange for insect specimens. In addition they purchased on a large scale, acquiring almost all the large collections sold during their lifetime.
Works
*''Coleopterorum Novitates''- Recueil spécialement consacré à l'étude des Coléoptères, Tome (Volume) 1 (1883)(the only published part of an intended series). Very few copies of this 80 page work, published by René himself, were printed and it ends abruptly.René Oberthür contributed "Scaphidides nouveaux"; "Nouvelles espèces de Monommides"; "Trois Nebria nouvelles"; "Un Coptolabrus nouveau"; "Carabiques récoltés à Saint-Laurent-du Maroni par Nodier"; "Deux espèces nouvelles de Geotrupides"; "Trois espèces nouvelles du genre Helota"; "Deux espèces nouvelles du genre Lemodes" There were only two other contributors
Maximilien Chaudoir
Maximilien Chaudoir, or Maximilien, baron de Chaudoir, (12 September 1816, , near Zhytomyr – 6 May 1881, Amélie-les-Bains) was a Russia, Russian entomology, entomologist. He was a specialist in Beetle, Coleoptera and in particular the Ground be ...
"Carabiques nouveaux" and
Léon Fairmaire
Léon Marc Herminie Fairmaire (29 June 1820 – 1 April 1906) was a French entomologist.
As a specialist in Coleoptera, he assembled an immense collection comparable with that of Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean (1780–1845). This is in the ...
''Note sur le genre Chalaenus and Espèces nouvelles d'Hétéromères de Madagascar''.
*with C. Houlbert (1913) Lucanides de Java. ''Insecta; revue illustree d'Entomologie'', Rennes 4 parts (1913–1914)-includes (1914) Catalogue systematique des lucanides considered somme ayant ete trouves dans l'ile de Java.
Collection
His collections are conserved by
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...
(5 million specimens in 20,000 cases)
Museum Koenig
The Museum Koenig Bonn, formerly Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (German: ''Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig'', abbreviated ZFMK), is a natural history museum and zoological research institution in Bonn, Germany. The mus ...
and
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova
The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria is a natural history museum in Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live wi ...
(Indomalayan and Papua Coleoptera).
References
* Anonym 1944
berthur, R.''Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr.'' 49 61
*Constantin, R. 1992 ''Memorial des Coléopteristes Français''.Bull. liaison Assoc. Col. reg. parisienne, Paris (Suppl. 14) : 1-92 67
*Vincent, R. 1986:
berthur, R.''Bull. liaison Assoc. Col. reg. parisienne'' 8: 8
External links
Culture France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberthur, Rene
1852 births
1944 deaths
Scientists from Rennes
French entomologists