Félix Louis L'Herminier

Who was Félix Louis L'Herminier?

Félix Louis L'Herminier was a French pharmacist and naturalist born in Paris. His son, Ferdinand Joseph L'Herminier, was a botanist and zoologist.

He studied chemistry and natural history in Paris, and in 1798 travelled to Guadeloupe, where he spent a number of years studying the island's flora and fauna. For political reasons, in 1815, he was exiled to Saint Barthélemy, later moving to Charleston, South Carolina, where he worked as a curator of natural history in the city museum. Afterwards, he resumed his scientific studies in Guadeloupe prior to returning to France in 1829.

He published several works on ornithology, including a treatise on the role and function of the sternum in birds, titled Recherches sur l'appareil sternal des oiseaux, considéré sous le double rapport de l'ostéologie et la myologie, suivies d'un essai sur la distribution de cette classe de vertébrés,.

He has several zoological species named after him, including the Guadeloupe woodpecker, the Martinique curly-tailed lizard, and Audubon's shearwater.