Charles Oberthür (14 September 1845 – 1 June 1924) was a French amateur

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 ...

specializing in lepidoptera.

Biography

Charles Oberthür was born in Rennes, the son of the printer

François-Charles Oberthür François-Charles Oberthür (1818, Strasbourg – 1893) was the founder of the French printing group Imprimerie Oberthur ( fr). In Strasbourg, François-Charles, an engraver, ran a printing press, with Alois Senefelder, the inventor of lithograp ...

and Marie Hamelin, and brother of the entomologist René Oberthür. At the age of sixteen he entered the family printing house (which was responsible in particular for printing postal calendars and national lottery tickets) and quickly became a good lithographer. In 1870, he married Louise Le Ray. He is buried in the Cimetière du Nord in a chapel built by his brother-in-law Emmanuel Le Ray, a municipal architect.

Politics

Oberthür was for some time a member of the municipal council of Rennes. Between 1900 and 1906, he served as first deputy to the mayor, Eugène Pinault. In 1906, he ran as deputy for Ille-et-Vilaine against René Le Hérissé and Mr. Jaouen in the first constituency of the Arrondissement of Rennes. He scored well in the first round (8,151 votes out of 18,380) but was beaten in the second round on 20 May 1906 (2,172 votes out of 12,014).

Entomology

Oberthür developed a passion for insects very early on, in particular thanks to the influence of his father. He began his first collection of insects at nine years old, and went on to acquire the collections of Jean Baptiste Boisduval (1799–1879),

Achille Guenée Achille Guenée (sometimes M.A. Guenée; 1 January 1809 – 30 December 1880) was a French lawyer and entomologist. Biography Achille Guenée was born in Chartres and died in Châteaudun. He was educated in Chartres, where he showed a very e ...

(1809–1880),

Jean-Baptiste Eugène Bellier de la Chavignerie Eugène Bellier de la Chavignerie (28 January 1819, Chartres – 25 September 1888, Évreux)Jean-Jacques Amigo, « Bellier de La Chavignerie (Jean-Baptiste, Eugène) », in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises, vol. 3 Sciences de ...

(1819–1888), Adolphe de Graslin (1802–1882),

Constant Bar Constant Bar (14 October 1817, Nantes – June 1884, Paramaribo) was a French entomologist. Constant Bar lived in French Guiana at L'île Portal in the commune of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and with his three brothers made extensive entomologica ...

(1817–1884),

Emmanuel Martin Emmanuel Martin (1827, Paris – 1897, Creil) was a French entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About ...

(1827– 1897),

Antoine Barthélemy Jean Guillemot Antoine Barthélemy Jean Guillemot (11 November 1822, Thiers – 25 August 1902, Thiers) was a French entomologist . He wrote ''Catalogue des lépidoptères du Département du Puy-de-Dôme'' Clermont-Ferrand, Impr. de Thibaud-Landriot publishe ...

and

Henry Walter Bates Henry Walter Bates (8 February 1825, in Leicester – 16 February 1892, in London) was an English naturalist and explorer who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals. He was most famous for his expedition to the rainforests ...

(1825–1892). This immense collection, at the end of his life, contained five million specimens in 15,000 glass topped boxes of 50 x 39 cm. In 1916, it was the second largest private collection in the world. Upon Oberthür's death, his brother René received 55,000

skipper butterflies Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...

from the collection, which he later sold to the

British Natural History Museum The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museu ...

in 1931. The rest of the butterfly collection was sold in 1925. Specimens (mostly North American species) were acquired by William Barnes, and subsequently acquired by 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 ...

in 1930 upon Barnes' death. Swallowtail butterflies were acquired by David Longsdon, whose large swallowtail collection was bequeathed to the Manchester Museum in 1938 upon Longsdon's death. Other specimens were likely acquired by a number of other entomologists.

Taxonomy

Oberthür named forty-five new genera of insects, forty-two of them moths.Butterflies & Moths of the World – Search Catalogue
/ref> A large number were species from North Africa and Asia. In 1913, he received the Cuvier prize from the Academy of Sciences.

Select publications

*1879 Catalogue raisonné des Papilionidae de la Collection de Ch. Oberthür ''Etudes d'Entomologie'', 4: 20–117. *Études de lépidoptérologie comparée, impr. Oberthür, In-8° et in-4°, nombreuses planches *Étude sur une collection de lépidoptères formée sur la côte de Malabar et à Ceylan par M. Émile Deschamps, 1889–1890, Paris, ''Société zoologique de France'', 1892, In-8°, 16 p. *Supplément du Bulletin de la Société scientifique et médicale de l'Ouest *Faune des Lepidopteres de la Barbarie. ''Etudes de Lepidopterologie comparee'', part 10, p. 1-459. Rennes, 1914.
text onlineplates online
*Faune entomologique armoricaine. Lépidoptères (premier fascicule). Rhopalocères, avec Constant Houlbert, impr. Oberthur, 1912. In-8°, 260 p. réimprimé en 1922. *Considérations sur la faune lépidoptérologique d’Alsace et sur les travaux et les collections des entomologistes alsaciens depuis le XVIIIe siècle., impr. Oberthür, 1920, In-8°, 30 p. *, impr. Oberthür, 1889, Gr. in-8°, 7 p.

Notes

External links

Biography
a
www.lepidopterology.comCulture France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberthur, Charles 1845 births 1924 deaths Scientists from Rennes French lepidopterists 19th-century French zoologists 20th-century French zoologists