Guenée, Achille

Achille Guenée was born in Chartres, France, on January 1, 1809. He began to study Lepidoptera as a boy. His first university education was at Chartres, and then he studied law in Paris. Of a wealthy family, he married and had a son and two daughters, of whom the son died young. He lived at his country residence at Châteaudun for the remainder of his life and contributed 63 papers on Lepidoptera. A major contribution was his six volumes in the series “Suites à Buffon” [a supplement to Buffon’s series on “Histoire naturelle”], “Spécies général des lepidoptères” (1852–1857). Another was “Essai sur une nouvelle classification des microlepidoptères” (1845), a major classificatory work. He died at Châteaudun on December 30, 1880.