[NHCOLL-L:4173] Information about collectors Commandant and Madame Loche

[Iris Heynen]

Dear Colleagues,

Together with my colleague Till Toepfer from the Museum of zoology in 
Dresden I am currently looking for biographical information about a 
French naturalist called Victor Loche who mainly worked on Algerian 
animals and plants.

This Commandant Victor Jean Francois Loche (1806-1863) originally came 
to Algeria with the French colonial army. His main interest, however, 
soon became the fauna and flora of this country and he published 
several books on these subjects.

Although Loche did a lot of collecting and research – among other 
things he published the first scientific description of the Sand cat 
Felis margarita – there is almost no information available about him.

He collected specimens for the botanical and zoological gardens in 
Algier as well as for the local natural history museum. He was later 
appointed director of that museum and after his death his widow was 
assigned as his successor. She also seems to be a very interesting 
person – she was a naturalist herself who worked together with her 
husband and also appears to have collected many specimens, 
particularly bird eggs, some of which are now in the museum here at 
Stuttgart.

Unfortunately, that is about all we have been able to find out so far.

Therefore, now we would like to ask your help in obtaining further 
information about Loche and his wife. The former Museum of Natural 
History in Algier no longer exists, but what happened to the specimens 
or Loche's papers and correspondence?

We would be very grateful for any kind of information – it would also 
help us a great deal if you could give us a hint who else we might 
contact about this matter.


Thank you very much for all your trouble.

Yours sincerely,
Iris Heynen.



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Iris Heynen
  - Ornithology -
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart
Rosenstein 1
D-70191 Stuttgart
Tel.: ++49-(0)711-8936280
Fax: ++49-(0)711-8936200
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