Marie Firmin Bocourt

Marie Firmin Bocourt (19 April 1819 – 1904) was a French zoologist and artist born in Paris.

In zoology, Bocourt collaborated with Auguste Duméril. In 1861, he was sent to Thailand (then called Siam), where he explored the fauna and brought back an important collection of specimens. In 1870 he published together with Duméril the Études sur les reptiles et les batraciens ("Studies on reptiles and amphibians"). This work was combined and published with Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, a result of Bocourt's scientific journey to Mexico and Central America in 1864-66. Dumeril died in 1870, and the project was continued by Bocourt with assistance from Léon Vaillant, François Mocquard and Fernand Angel.^[1] In 1883, he published Études sur les poissons ("Studies on fishes") with Léon Vaillant.

As an artist, he specialized in engravings, doing portraits of contemporary people as well as zoological illustrations.

He has a number of zoological specimens named after him; including:

Bocourt's swimming crab, Callinectes bocourti (A. Milne-Edwards, 1879).^[2]
Bocourt's eyelid skink, Phoboscincus bocourti (Brocchi, 1876).^[3]
Bocourt's black-headed snake, Tantilla bocourti (Gunther, 1895).^[4]
Cranopsis bocourti: a Central American toad.
Craugastor bocourti: a frog native to Guatemala.

References

^ [1] Softcover, Antiquariaat Junk; (Adler. History of Herpetology, pp. 43/44).
^ [2] USGS Callinectes bocourti
^ [3] The Reptile Database Phoboscincus bocourti
^ [4] Reptile Database Tantilla bocourti

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Name	Bocourt, Marie Firmin
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Date of birth	19 April 1819
Place of birth
Date of death	1904
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