| John David Digues La Touche | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1861-06-05)5 June 1861 Tours, France |
| Died | 6 May 1935(1935-05-06) (aged 73) |
| Relatives |
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John David Digues La Touche (5 June 1861 – 6 May 1935) was an Irish ornithologist, naturalist, and zoologist. La Touche's career was as a customs official in China.
Early life and education
La Touche was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France, to Charles John La Touche of Marlay House, Dublin, and Marie Rose Apolline de Fouchier of Mirebeau (1829–1908), from a noble Poitevin family. The La Touche family of Ireland are of Huguenot descent, descended from David Digues de la Touche (1671–1745) who fled Blois after the Edict of Fontainebleau.
La Touche was educated at Downside School, in Somerset.
Career
La Touche entered the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in China in 1882.
During his time in China, he made extensive ornithological observations and collections, resulting in many important publications. Notably, he wrote the A Handbook of the Birds of Eastern China, consisting of two volumes and altogether ten parts that were published in 1925–1934 (Taylor & Francis, London). He also made other collections, including reptiles and amphibians.
In 1921, he retired to Dublin and later lived in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow.
La Touche's free-tailed bat, La Touche's mole, and La Touche's frog are named after him. A species of Chinese snake, Opisthotropis latouchii, is named in his honour. Also, a genus of spider Latouchia in the family Halonoproctidae was presumably named after him as co-collector of the Chinese type species, alongside fellow naturalist Mr. C.B. Rickett. Else, a genus of flowering plants from China named Latouchea, belonging to the family Gentianaceae can also be an honorific as collected by both La Touche and his wife. The specific epithet of fokienensis resembles the maiden name of La Touche's wife, née Caroline Dawson Focken (1871–1945). However Fokien is a historical name for the Fujian region of China, and the -ensis denotes being "of/from a place". This uses the latin nominative case, together meaning "of/from Fokien". For honorific species names involving people, in contrast. the genitive case of latin is typically used.
Works
References
- ^ Anonymous (1935). "Obituary: John David Digues La Touche". Ibis. 77 (4): 889–890. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1935.tb01642.x. October, 1935 issue.
- Annuaire de la noblesse de France et des maisons souveraines de l'Europe (in French). Champion. 1858. pp. 206–208. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
- Burke, Bernard (1863). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Harrison. p. 123. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
- "China (East & South)". Avian Review. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
- Boulenger, G. A. (1899). "On a Collection of Reptiles and Batrachians made by Mr. J. D. La Touche in N.W. Fokien, China". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1899: 159–172.
- Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (La Touche, pp. 151-152).
- "Latouchea fokienensis Franch. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
- Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. pp. Part I, L14. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.