George Samouelle

General Directions for Collecting and Preserving Exotic Insects, 1826

George Samouelle (* around 1790; † 1846 ) was a British entomologist , zoologist and insect collector.

Life

Little is known about him. He was an employed bookseller at Longmans & Co. and a passionate insect collector. He is known for his handbook for entomologists (insect collectors) from 1819 with many practical tips and an associated catalog of around 4000 species. In Great Britain, however, it was soon eclipsed as a popular science book on entomology by the Introduction to Entomology by William Kirby and William Spence . In his work Samouelle was advised by the zoologist William Elford Leach . Another guide for collectors followed in 1826 and in 1841 he began a series of publications for collectors The Entomological Cabinet , of which only two volumes appeared.

From his book of 1819 he is given a number of initial descriptions. He first named bat flies, for example . Some cancer taxa are named by him (like the superfamily Galathoidea the anomura and jumping crabs that superfamily Leucosioidea of crabs , majidae , stone and king crab ). Occasionally, historians denied it independent scientific significance and ascribed many of its descriptions in his book from 1819 to Leach, who soon afterwards left the museum, where Samouelle took on some of his tasks.

From 1821 onwards, under the influence of Leach, he was also responsible for the insect collection at the British Museum (later the Natural History Museum ). In 1841 he was dismissed for neglect of his duties, drunkenness, offensive language towards superiors and other offenses. Among other things, he was accused of having removed the labels from his colleague Adam White's copies and of causing great confusion. After Salmon he was overworked and his health deteriorated. He died five years after his release.

In 1826 he founded the exclusive Entomological Club in London with Edward Newman and others, which still exists today. Each member had to invite the others once a month. Newman started Entomological Magazine in 1832, which was practically a club magazine.

Fonts

• The entomologist's useful compendium; or, An introduction to the knowledge of British insects, comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the apparatus generally used; together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes ... according to the views of Dr. Leach ... with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope. Illustrated with twelve plates , London: Printed for T. Boys 1819, Biodiversity Heritage Library
• A nomenclature of British entomology: or a catalog of above 4,000 species of the classes crustacea, myriapodo, spiders, mites and insects, alphabetically arranged and intended as labels for cabinets of British insects, & c from The entomologist's useful compendium , London: Printed for T . Boys 1819
• General directions for collecting and preserving exotic insects and crustacea: designed for the use of residents in foreign co untries, travelers, and gentlemen going abroad; with illustrative plates , London Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1826.
• The entomological cabinet; being a natural history of British insects. With plates illustrative of the principal families and genera , London: Henderson 1841

literature

• Michael A. Salmon: The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and their Collectors, University of California Press 2000, pp. 137f
• AE Gunther: A century of zoology at the British Museum through the lives of two Keepers 1815–1914, Bristol: Folkestone 1975
• AE Gunther: The founders of Science at the British Museum 1753–1900, Halesworth, Suffolk 1980

References and comments

1. ^ Natural History Museum, Butterflies and Moths of the World, Bibliographical Record, Samouelle
2. ^ AE Gunther 1975, 1980, quoted in David M. Damkaer, The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History, Volume 1, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 240, 2002, p. 168