PROFILBARU.COM

George Albert Boulenger
FRS
George Albert Boulenger FRS
Born	19 October 1858; Brussels, Belgium
Died	23 November 1937 (aged 79); Saint Malo, France
Alma mater	Free University of Brussels
Known for	Monographs on fishes, amphibians, and reptiles
Children	Edward George Boulenger
Parents	Gustave Boulenger (father); Juliette Piérart (mother);
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society, Order of Leopold (Belgium)
	Scientific career
Fields	Zoology, botany
Institutions	Natural History Museum, London
Author abbrev. (botany)	Boulenger
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Boulenger

George Albert Boulenger FRS^[1] (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botanist during the last 30 years of his life, especially in the study of roses.^[2]

Life

Boulenger was born in Brussels, Belgium, the only son of Gustave Boulenger, a Belgian public notary, and Juliette Piérart, from Valenciennes. He graduated in 1876 from the Free University of Brussels with a degree in natural sciences, and worked for a while at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, as an assistant naturalist studying amphibians, reptiles, and fishes. He also made frequent visits during this time to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris and the British Museum in London.

Boulenger developed a lifelong passion for animals, which led him to study zoology at the University. During his university years, he gained recognition at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Brussels and was hired as an assistant naturalist in 1880. Two years later, he joined the British Museum's Department of Zoology as a first-class assistant, under the leadership of Dr. Gunther. Boulenger held this position until his retirement in 1920.^[3]

After his retirement from the British Museum, Boulenger studied roses and published 34 papers on botanical subjects and two volumes on the roses of Europe. He died in Saint Malo, France.

According to biographical accounts, he was incredibly methodical and had an amazing memory that enabled him to remember every specimen and scientific name he ever saw. He also had extraordinary powers of writing, seldom made a second draft of anything he wrote, and his manuscripts showed but few corrections before going to the publisher.

Boulenger also played the violin, could speak French, German, and English apart from reading Spanish, Italian and a bit of Russian. As a zoologist, he also had a working knowledge of both Greek and Latin.

By 1921, Boulenger had published 875 papers^[1] totaling more than 5,000 pages, as well as 19 monographs on fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. The list of his publications and its index of species covers 77 printed pages.

He described 1,096 species of fish, 556 species of amphibians, and 872 species of reptiles. He was famous for his monographs on amphibians, lizards and other reptiles, and fishes, for example, his monographs on the fishes of Africa.

He was a member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and was elected its first honorary member in 1935. In 1937, Belgium conferred on him the Order of Leopold, the highest honor awarded to a civilian.

His son, Edward George Boulenger (1888–1946), was also a zoologist and held the post of Director of the London Zoo Aquarium.

Work on cave-dwelling fish

In 1897, King Leopold II of Belgium started to recruit naturalists to help create the Congo museum. Boulenger was named chairman for this commission.

His main discovery in 1921 was a strange fish from the Congo. It was eyeless and lacked pigmentation. He recognized it as new and unrelated to any extant epigean (eyed, surface) species of Africa. He wrote a brief paper describing this new species of cave fish, the first ever described from Africa. He called it Caecobarbus geertsii, from caeco = blind, barbus = barb, and geertsii, honoring a mysterious person, M. Geerts, who provided him with the specimen. Today, it is known as the Congo blind barb or African blind barb.

Honours

1912: Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.^[4]

Taxa described by him

See Category:Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger

Boulenger described hundreds of reptile taxa; 587 species described by him are still recognised today. He also described many amphibians and fishes.

Taxa named in his honor

These 26 reptile species, recognised today, bear George Boulenger's name in the specific name, as boulengeri, boulengerianus, or boulengerii :^[5]^[6]

Agama boulengeri Lataste, 1886 – Boulenger's agama
Anolis boulengerianus Thominot, 1887 – Tehuantepec anole
Atractaspis boulengeri Mocquard, 1897 – Boulenger's burrowing asp

Atractus boulengerii Peracca, 1896 – Boulenger's centipede snake
Brachymeles boulengeri Taylor, 1922 – Boulenger's short-legged skink
Chalcides boulengeri Anderson, 1892 – Boulenger's sand skink
Cnemaspis boulengerii Strauch, 1887 – Con Dao rock gecko
Compsophis boulengeri (Peracca, 1892) – Boulenger's forest snake
Cylindrophis boulengeri Roux, 1911 – Timor pipesnake
Dendragama boulengeri Doria, 1888 – Boulenger's tree agama
Elapsoidea boulengeri Boettger, 1895 – Boulenger's gartersnake
Feylinia boulengeri Chabanaud, 1917 – gabon legless skink
Hebius boulengeri (Gressitt, 1937) – Tai-Yong keelback
Enyalius boulengeri Etheridge, 1969 – Brazilian fathead anole
Epacrophis boulengeri (Boettger, 1913) – Lamu blindsnake
Gonyosoma boulengeri (Mocquard, 1897) – rhinoceros ratsnake
Chersobius boulengeri Duerden, 1906 – Karoo padloper
Liolaemus boulengeri Koslowsky, 1898 – Boulenger's tree lizard
Morethia boulengeri (Ogilby, 1890) – Boulenger's snake-eyed skink
Nucras boulengeri Neumann, 1900 – Ugandan savanna lizard
Pareas boulengeri (Angel, 1920) – Boulenger's slug snake
Xenoxybelis boulengeri (Procter, 1923) – southern sharp-nosed snake
Rhampholeon boulengeri Steindachner, 1911 – Boulenger's pygmy chameleon
Scolecoseps boulengeri Loveridge, 1920 – Moçambique legless skink
Trachyboa boulengeri Peracca, 1910 – northern eyelash boa
Trachylepis boulengeri (Sternfeld, 1911) – Boulenger's skink

The water cobra genus Boulengerina was named for G.A. Boulenger, but it is now treated as a subgenus of Naja containing four species: Naja annulata (water cobra), Naja christyi (Congo water cobra), Naja melanoleuca (forest cobra), and Naja multifasciata (burrowing cobra).^[7]

Fish species named after Boulenger

Euchilichthys boulengeri Nichols & La Monte 1934^[8]
The catfish Heterobranchus boulengeri Pellegrin, 1922^[9]
Hyphessobrycon boulengeri (Eigenmann, 1907)^[10]
Labeobarbus boulengeri Vreven, Musschoot, Snoeks & Schliewen, 2016^[11]
Lepidiolamprologus boulengeri (Steindachner, 1909)^[12]
Xenophysogobio boulengeri (T. L. Tchang, 1929) was named for Boulenger, who provided "some guidance" (translation) in the completion of Tchang's paper.^[13]

In the above lists, a binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than the genus to which it is currently assigned.

Fish genera named after Boulenger

The pike characin genus Boulengerella Eigenmann, 1903^[14]
The cichlid genus Boulengerochromis Pellegrin, 1904^[15]
The mormyrid genus Boulengeromyrus Taverne & Géry, 1968^[16]

Botany

The standard author abbreviation Boulenger is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[17]

Bibliography

He contributed a monograph published in volume 7 of The Cambridge Natural History.^[18]^[19]
Books written by George Albert Boulenger include:

Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia s. Ecaudata in the Collection of the British Museum. (1882).
Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. (1885, 1885, 1887). Three volumes.
Catalogue of the Chelonians, Rhynchocephalians, and Crocodiles in the British Museum (Natural History). New Edition. (1889).
The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. (1890).
Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). (1893, 1894, 1896). Three volumes.
The Tailless Batrachians of Europe. (1897).
The Snakes of Europe. (1913).

References

^ ^a ^b Watson DMS (1940). "George Albert Boulenger. 1858–1937". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 3 (8): 13–26. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1940.0002. JSTOR 768868. S2CID 162129625.
^ Stafleu FA, Cowan RS (1976). Taxonomic literature: a selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types, 2nd edition. Vol. 1: A–G. Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema. p. 384. ISBN 978-90-313-0224-6. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
^ "George Albert Boulenger, 1858 - 1937". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 3 (8): 13–17. January 1940. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1940.0002. ISSN 1479-571X.
^ Index biographique des membres et associés de l'Académie royale de Belgique (1769–2005). p. 36.
^ "boulengeri ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5.
^ Wallach V; Wüster W; Broadley D [in French] (2009). "In praise of subgenera: taxonomic status of cobras of the genus Naja Laurenti (Serpentes: Elapidae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2236: 26–36. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2236.1.2. S2CID 14702999.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (23 May 2024). "Family MOCHOKIDAE Regan 1912 (Squeakers or Upside-down Catfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (30 June 2024). "Family CLARIIDAE Bonaparte 1845 (Airbreathing or Labyrinth Catfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 September 2018). "Family LORICARIIDAE: Subfamily HYPOSTOMINAE Kner 1853 (Suckermouth Catfishes or Plecos)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (9 September 2024). "Family CYPRINIDAE: Subfamily TORINAE Karaman 1971 (Large Barbs)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (4 December 2018). "Order CICHLIFORMES: Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (l-o)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (7 September 2024). "Family GOBIONIDAE Bleeker 1863 (Freshwater Gudgeons)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (4 October 2023). "Family CTENOLUCIIDAE Schultz 1944 (Pike Characids)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 July 2018). "Order CICHLIFORMES: Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (a-g)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (18 October 2024). "Family MORMYRIDAE Bonaparte 1831 (Elephantfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^ International Plant Names Index. Boulenger.
^ Harmer, S. F.; Shipley, A. E., eds. (1904). "Fishes (systematic account of Teleostei) by G. A. Boulenger". The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. 7. pp. 541–727.
^ "Review of The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. VII". The Athenaeum (4031): 114. 28 January 1905.