François-Louis Nompar de Caumont Laporte, comte de Castelnau (born François-Louis Nompar de Caumont La Force; 24 December 1802 – 4 February 1880) was a French naturalist, also known as François Laporte or Francis de Castelnau. The standard author abbreviation Castelnau is used to indicate him when citing a botanical name and zoological names other than insects. Laporte is typically used when citing an insect name,e.g. Genus Perigona Laporte, 1835Tetraopes varicornis Laporte, 1840 or Laporte de Castelnau.e.g. Genus Polyzonus Laporte de Castelnau, 1840
Life Born in London, Castelnau studied natural history in Paris. From 1837 to 1841, he traveled in the United States, Texas, and Canada. He visited Middle Florida from November 1837 until March 1838, publishing "Essai sur la Floride du Milieu" in 1843. In Canada, he studied the fauna of the Canadian lakes and the river systems of Upper and Lower Canada (roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of Ontario and Quebec) and of the United States.
Castelnau, a French savant, was sent by Louis Philippe, in 1843, with two botanists and a taxidermist, on an expedition to cross South America from Rio de Janeiro to Lima, following the watershed between the Amazon and La Plata river systems, and thence to Pará. He was gone for five years, with the expedition lasting into 1847. During the expedition, he also collected word lists of various indigenous South American languages, including Bororoan languagesCastelnau, Francis de. 1850-59. Expédition dan les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud : de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para exécutée par ordre du gouvernement français pendant les années 1843 à 1847, sous la direction de Francis de Castelnau. P. Bertrand. Paris and Guachi.Castelnau, Francis de 1850-1. Expédition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud: de Rio de Janeiro á Lima, et de Lima au Para, executée par ordre du Gouvernement franais pendant les années 1843 á 1847. Histoire du Voyage, París: P. Bertrand, vol. 2 & 5.
In 1856-57, he visited the Cape of Good Hope, travelling as far east as Algoa Bay, and subsequently wrote a treatise on South African fish (1861).Southern African Plant Names - Clarke & Charters (Jacana, 2016)
He served as the French consul in Bahia in 1848; in Siam sometime between 1856 and 1858, and in Melbourne, Australia, from 1864 to 1877.
Hoax Australian fish
Through no fault of his own, Castelnau's name is attached to an Australian hoax. "Ompax spatuloides", a supposed ganoid fish said to have been discovered in 1872 and named by Castelnau, was a joke originally directed at Karl Staiger, the director of the Brisbane Museum. Staiger forwarded a sketch and description of the made-up fish to Castelnau, who duly described it.
Legacy Castelnau is commemorated, among others, in the scientific names of: a species of Australian gecko, Oedura castelnaui,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Castelnau", p. 49). a species of ground beetle, Megacephala castelnaui, a species of scarab beetle, Hybosorus laportei, an aphid Cinara laportei, the spotback skate, Atlantoraja castelnaui the plant genus Laportea.
Works Histoire naturelle, 1837. Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique: histoire naturelle des insectes coléoptères, 1840. with Hippolyte Louis Gory , 1837–1841). Vues et souvenirs de l'Amérique du Nord, 1842. "Essai sur la Floride du Milieu", Nouvelles Annales des Voyages et des Sciences Géographiques, IV, 1843. , 1843.
See also :Category:Taxa named by François-Louis Laporte, comte de Castelnau
Notes
References
Further reading "Francis L. de Laporte, Comte de Castelnau," in Tom Taylor and Michael Taylor, Aves: A Survey of the Literature of Neotropical Ornithology, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Libraries, 2011.
External links
Francis de Castelnau's expedition Australian National Biography Bright Sparcs Biography