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John David Digues La Touche (5 June 1861 – 6 May 1935) was an Irish ornithologist, naturalist, and zoologist.[1] La Touche's career was as a customs official in China.[1]
John David Digues La Touche | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 June 1861 Tours, France |
| Died | 6 May 1935 (aged 73) |
| Relatives |
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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.[2] 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.[3]
La Touche was educated at Downside School, in Somerset.
La Touche entered the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in China in 1882.[1]
During his time in China, he made extensive ornithological observations and collections, resulting in many important publications.[1] 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).[4] He also made other collections, including reptiles and amphibians.[5]
In 1921, he retired to Dublin and later lived in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow.[1]
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.[6] 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.[7][8] 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.
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