Léon Gaston Seurat

Léon Gaston Seurat (1872–1949) was a French zoologist and parasitologist known for his investigations of fauna native to French Polynesia and northern Africa.

In 1899 he submitted his graduate thesis on entomophagous Hymenoptera to the faculty of Paris, afterwards (1902–05) working as a naturalist in the South Seas, most notably in the Tuamotu and Gambier Islands. In May 1906 he began work as préparateur of zoology in the laboratory of Biologie appliquée aux colonies. Later on in his career, he was appointed professor of zoology at the University of Algiers.

Taxa with the specific epithet of seurati are named after him, a few examples being Acomys seurati (Seurat's spiny mouse), Perinereis seurati (an annelid species described by Charles Gravier in 1905) and Calcinus seurati (Seurat's hermit crab). Also a genus of fungi in the Ascomycota phylum was named Seuratia with its accompanying family Seuratiaceae.

Selected works

Observations sur la Structure, la Faune et la Flore de l'Ile Marutea du Sud, 1903 – Observations on the structure: The fauna and flora of Marutea Sud.

Observations sur l'évolution de l'huître perlière des Tuamotu et des Gambier, 1904 – Observations on the evolution of pearl oysters of the Tuamotu and Gambier Islands.

Observations sur quelques îles orientales de l'Archipel Tuamotu, 1904 – Observations on some of the eastern islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago.

Tahiti et les établissements français de l'Océanie, 1906 – Tahiti and the French establishments in Oceania.