Pierre Nicolas Camille Jacquelin du Val

Who was Pierre Nicolas Camille Jacquelin du Val?

Pierre Nicolas Camille Jacquelin Du Val was a French entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera. Born in Pyrénées-Orientales, Jacquelin Du Val went to Paris in order to begin medical studies. There he met Alexandre Laboulbène who introduced him to entomology. The paradox is that Laboulbène became a famous physician, when Jacquelin left medicine to concentrate on entomology. After minor preliminary works, he conceived together with the miniaturist painter Jules Migneaux a vast project describing and illustrating all European genera of beetles. There was the Genera des coléoptères d’Europe, which started to get published in 1854, one of the most remarkable European book on beetles, due to the quality of its text, and especially to its magnificent illustrations, whose beauty and accuracy was never surpassed. Unfortunately, Jacquelin Du Val died at 34, leaving unfinished his work which was brought to an end by the prolific author Léon Fairmaire. In addition, Jacquelin wrote a small volume of Glanures entomologiques, to accommodate some smaller contributions he could not introduce in his great Genera.