Auguste Sallé (21 October 1820,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
– 5 May 1896,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French
travel
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...
ler and
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.
Following expeditions to the
Southern States of the USA, the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
,
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
(especially
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
), and
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
on behalf of
Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat
Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat (29 March 1799, Paris – 16 December 1884, Paris) was a French entomologist. He specialized mainly on the beetles and was a founder of the Societe entomologique de France in 1832.
Chevrolat worked as a toll adm ...
and accompanied by his mother and a M. Vasselet. He first went to Santo Domingo in 1849, and his collections were sent to Mr. Hugh Cuming. Sallé returned to Paris to set up as a natural history and insect dealer. The business thrived, and he sold specimens to many very wealthy amateur entomologists:
Edmond Jean-Baptiste Fleutiaux,
Henri Boileau,
Neervoort Jacob R. H. van de Poll,
René Oberthür,
Antoine Henri Grouvelle,
Grivard, and
André Thery as well as to other Paris dealerships of
Henri Donckier de Donceel,
Achille Deyrolle and
Émile Deyrolle. These specimens together with his private collection are in the ''
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 ...
''. Insects sold to
Frederick DuCane Godman and
Osbert Salvin
Osbert Salvin (25 February 1835 – 1 June 1898) was an English natural history, naturalist, Ornithology, ornithologist, and Herpetology, herpetologist best known for co-authoring ''Biologia Centrali-Americana'' (1879–1915) with Frederick DuC ...
are in the
Natural History Museum,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
He was a member of the ''
Société entomologique de France'' and the
Entomological Society of London
Sallé is commemorated in the
scientific names of two reptiles: a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of snake, ''
Geophis sallaei'' ; and a
subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
of lizard, ''
Anolis sericeus sallaei''.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Sallé", p. 232).] He is also commemorated by a large spider he collected in Mexico, named ''Cupiennius salei'', which later became an important model for spider-venom research.
References
Further reading
*Anonym 1896
alle, A.''Entomologist's Monthly Magazine'' (3) 32 141
*Constantin, R. 1992 ''Memorial des Coléopteristes Français''. Bull. liaison Assoc. Col. reg. parisienne, Paris (Suppl. 14) : 1-92 81-82
*Meldola, R. 1896
alle, A. ''Proc. Ent. Soc. London'' 1896 93-94
External links
*
Sclater P.L., 1856. Catalogue of the birds collected by Auguste Sallé in southern Mexico, with descriptions of new species.''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 24: 283-31
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salle, Auguste
1820 births
1896 deaths
French entomologists