Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean

Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean (August 10 1780, Amiens - March 17 1845, Paris ), was a French entomologist. A soldier of fortune during the Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and aide de campe to Napoleon. He amassed vast collections of Coleoptera some even collected on the battlefield at Waterloo. He listed 22,399 species in his cabinets in 1837 at the time the greatest collection of Coleoptera in the world. In 1802 he began publishing a catalogue of his vast collection including 22,000 species names. Unfortunately Dejean was an opponent of the Principle of Priority in nomenclature. "I have made it a rule always to preserve the name most generally used , and not the oldest one; because it seems to me that general usage should always be followed and that it is harmful to change what has already been established". Dejean acted accordingly and often introduced in litteris names, given by himself to replace those already published by other authors. They became invalid. Dejean was president of the Société entomologique de France for the year 1840.

Works

*"Catalogue des Coléoptères de la collection d’Auguste Dejean" (1802-1837)
* with Pierre André Latreille "Histoire naturelle et iconographie des insectes coléoptères d'Europe" Paris : Crevot, 1822. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k992027 digitised at Gallica] .
*"Spécies Général des Coléoptères" (1825-1838)

External links

* [http://www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/workers/PDejean.htm Portrait and Short account of Dejean]