Marc Soula

His life

He returned to France in 1962 after being educated from 1956 to 1962 in Gautier High School in Algiers. After a career as a teacher of mathematics, he can devote himself entirely to his two pasions that are the mineralogy and entomology.

Mineral explorations

He made many visits to caves in southern France. He also prospected in Morocco. He assembled an important collection of minerals.

Entomological works

It is in entomology he gives all his efforts and in a few years he becomes one of the world's leading experts in Rutelinae. He studied and reclassified the collection of these insects of the Entomology Laboratory of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle of Paris. He traveled extensively to capture insects in Asia (Malaysia, Thailand) and South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru (4 times), Venezuela). He attended the international specialists as Mary Liz Jameson and Miguel-Angel Morón or Daniel Curoe. Tireless worker, he always questions the nomenclature and creates new subfamilies and new genera. He published his works in the series The Beetles of the World. He wrote volumes 26 and 29, with their supplements 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 ·  ·  ·  · . Then he continues to publish as a supplement to the journal Besoiro of Patrick Arnaud, what will the books "Les Coléoptères du Nouveau Monde" with five volumes have appeared ·  ·  ·  · . He also published a few descriptive notes in the journal Besoiro ·  · . He was a man very kind and quite funny, his writing style has nothing to do with the one of a professional scientist. In 2002, he creates the genus Maripa to make a joke with Maripasoula, a commune of French Guiana. As this name was already preoccupied, he has replaced it by the new genusTheuremaripa which means in French: do not get married again.

Entomological terms named after him

Taxa décrits

With 515 taxa described, Marc Soula is among the most active entomologists. The list of the taxa he created, fully referenced, is given elsewhere.