Pierre Andre Latreille owed his life to a beetle.
He named hundreds of taxa, as well as many species and countless genera.
He was the first person who attempted a natural classification of the arthropods.
But all these was to come later.
At first, he needed to escape execution.
The obelisk and bust of Pierre-Andre Latreille over his grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.
He was the illegitimate child of Jean Joseph Sahuguet d’Amarzit, general baron d’Espagnac.
Effectively orphaned, Latreille did however had influential protectors, who ensured that Latreille had a good education.
He entered the Grand Seminaire of Limoges in 1780, and left as a deacon in 1786.
Despite being qualified to preach, Latreille never carried out his functions as a minister.
Instead, he found that he had a growing interest in entomology.
Pierre-Andre Latreille
Meanwhile, a major socio-political storm was brewing in France.
People were fed up with the monarchy and the feudal system and rose in revolt.
The Estates General took control of the Assembly and the peasants stormed Bastille, the symbol of Royal authority.
Many aristocrats and members of the clergy were arrested, including King Louis XVI.
A new law was passed that caused the immediate subordination of the Catholic Church to the French government.
This law demanded that every priest take an oath of allegiance to the state.
Latreille was one of them, and consequently he was arrested and imprisoned.
Soon, he would be exiled to a penal colony where death was certain.
He was eagerly studying his invertebrate cellmate when the prison doctor came for a visit.
As luck would have it, Bory de Saint-Vincent already knew Latreille from his previous publications.
Horrified to learn that Latreille was imprisoned, the well-connected Bory de Saint-Vincent hurriedly arranged for Latreilles release.
Within a month, all the other condemned men were dead.
In 1814, Latreille became the titular member of the French Academy of Sciences.
In 1829 he succeeded Lamarck as professor of entomology.
The tombstone of Pierre-Andre Latreille.
