French entomologist, born at St. Léons in Aveyron on the 21st of December 1823. At ten years old he went to Rodez as a choir boy and there received the elements of a classical education, continuing it further at the normal school of Vaucluse. But his whole bent was for science, and, after he had become a teacher at Carpentras, he worked in his spare hours at physics and mathematics and became interested in insects, the study of whose habits was to form his life-work. Later he became a teacher of physics, first at Ajaccio and afterwards at Avignon. His first observations were published in Annales des Sciences Naturelles (1855–58), followed a good deal later by Souvenirs Entomologiques (1879–1907). He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He died at Serignan, Provence, on the 11th of October 1915. See also The Mason-Bees.
