American entomologist (1825-1883)
John Lawrence LeConte MD (May 13, 1825 – November 15, 1883) was an American entomologist, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime, including some 5,000 species of beetles. He was recognized as the foremost authority on North American beetles during his career, and has been described as "the father of American beetle study".
Early life.
A member of the scientifically inclined LeConte family, John Lawrence was born in New York City, the son of naturalist John Eatton Le Conte. His mother, Mary A. H. Lawrence, died when John Lawrence was only a few months old, and he was raised by his father. Most reliable sources spell his name "LeConte" or "Leconte", without the space used by his father, and samples of his signature show the preference for "LeConte".
He graduated from Mount Saint Mary College, Emmettsburg, Maryland, in 1842, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1846. He worked as a chemical assistant to John Torrey and after receiving his medical degree he briefy practiced medicine. He also married Helen Grier and in the same year he gave up medical practice. During the civil war he again worked as a medical inspector and received the rank of lieutenant colonel. Having inherited enough money to make himself independent, LeConte did not practice medicine professionally. Influences in his life included Louis Agassiz and Hermann Rudolph Schaum who stayed in the Leconte home.
While still in medical college, in 1844, John Lawrence traveled with his cousin Joseph LeConte to the Great Lakes. Starting at Niagara Falls, they visited Detroit and Chicago and traversed Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois before returning up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh and on to New York. John Lawrence published his first three papers on beetles that year.
Travels.
After graduating from medical college John Lawrence LeConte made several trips west, including to California via Panama in 1849. While in San Francisco, he sent 10,000 beetles preserved in ethanol back to his father. Another 20,000 beetle specimens were lost in a fire in 1852. LeConte also traveled to Europe, Egypt and Algiers. He spent two years exploring the Colorado River, and was in Honduras for the building of the Honduras Interoceanic Railway, and in Colorado and New Mexico with the party surveying for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He moved to Philadelphia in 1852, residing there for the rest of his life. He died in Philadelphia on November 15, 1883.
Military service.
During the American Civil War he enlisted in the Army Medical Corps as a surgeon. He was promoted to the position of medical inspector and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel by the end of the war.
U.S. Mint.
In 1878 he became the chief clerk (assistant director) of the United States Mint in Philadelphia. He retained that position until his death in 1883.
Scientific societies.
LeConte was active in the scientific societies of his time, with stints as vice-president of the American Philosophical Society (1880–1883) and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1873). He was a founder of the American Entomological Society, and a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Legacy.
The genera "Lecontella", "Lecontellus", "Lecontia", and "Contia" and several hundred species (mostly beetles) are named after him, including a bird, LeConte's thrasher ("Toxostoma lecontei"), which he discovered while on a beetle-collecting trip to Arizona, and was named after him by George Newbold Lawrence. LeConte communicated with and collected birds and other natural history specimens for Spencer Fullerton Baird, a distant cousin and assistant director and then director of the Smithsonian Institution for a total of 39 years. In turn Baird asked other naturalists to collect beetles for LeConte.
In the 1850s, LeConte collected some crystals from a cave in Honduras being mined for bat guano. It was later found to be a new mineral that was named "lecontite" in his honor.
Notes.
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External links.
 Media related to at Wikimedia Commons