Léon Dufour was born 11 April, 1780, at Saint Sever (Landes) and died there 18 April, 1865. He was a medical man and a naturalist. He took his M.D. at Montpellier ir 1806. From 1806 to 1814 he served in the army, then turned his attention to entomology and botany, but in 1823 he took part in the Spanish Campaign as an army doctor. He distinguished himself especially through his work on the anatomy and physiology of arthropods and upon the habits and metamorphosis of insects, but he also wrote on botany, agriculture and meteorology. He was elected to the Academic des Sciences and was the first Frenchman upon whom that body conferred the Cuvier Prize (1861). During 1811–1864 he published 232 papers on entomology, the relation of insects to plant diseases, parasites of Insects, parasitism, Protozoa and Helminths.