Sylvain Auguste de Marseul (January 21, 1812 in Fougerolles-du-Plessis in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

– April 16, 1890 in Paris) was a French Roman Catholic priest and

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 ...

. He taught in the Petit séminaire de Paris from 1833 to 1836. In 1842, founded a college at

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

, then from 1850 to 1853, he taught in Paris. In 1854, he left his college for America where he remained eight months and discovered entomology. The abbot of Marseul was the author of many publications. He founded in 1864 a review devoted to the

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 ...

and named ''L'Abeille'', the Bee. On his death this publication was continued by

Ernest Marie Louis Bedel Ernest Marie Louis Bedel (16 May 1849, Nantes – 26 January 1922, Paris) was a French entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera. Louis Bedel studied first in Nantes then in Paris where the future entomologist Maurice Sédillot (1849-1933) was a ...

(1849-1922) then by René Gabriel Jeannel (1879-1965). The abbot also studied the history of the beginnings of French entomology in a series of review article in the Bee under the generic title ''Entomologistes et de leurs écrits'', Entomologists and their writings (1882 to 1887). His collection is conserved in 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 ...

and his library in the

Société entomologique de France The Société entomologique de France, or French Entomological Society, is devoted to the study of insects. The society was founded in 1832 in Paris, France. The society was created by eighteen Parisian entomologists on January 31, 1832. The first ...

Works

*''Éléments d'arithmétique raisonnée, à l'usage des frères de Saint-Joseph'' ( Périsse frères, Paris et Lyon, 1839) ; *''Catalogue des coléoptères d'Europe'' (Paris, 1857) ; *''Catalogue des coléoptères d'Europe et du bassin de la Mediterranée en Afrique et en Asie'' (A. Deyrolle, Paris, 1863) ; *''Catalogus coleopterorum Europae et confinium'' (A. Deyrolle, Paris, 1866).

Sources

*Jean Gouillard (2004). ''Histoire des entomologistes français'', 1750-1950. Édition entièrement revue et augmentée. Boubée (Paris) : 287 p. *Jean Lhoste (1987). ''Les Entomologistes français''. 1750-1950. INRA Éditions : 351 p. Translated from the French Wikipedia article. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marseul, Sylvain Auguste de 1812 births 1890 deaths French entomologists Presidents of the Société entomologique de France Coleopterists French abbots