Editing Armand David

{{short description|Lazarist missionary Roman Catholic priest, zoologist, and botanist from the Basque Country, France}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Catholic priest
| honorific_prefix = The Reverend
| name = Armand David
| honorific_suffix = [[Congregation of the Mission|CM]]
| title = <!-- e.g. [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] -->
| image = Armand David Berillon BNF Gallica.jpg
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
<!---------- Orders ---------->| ordination = 1851
<!---------- Personal details ---------->| birth_name = Jean-Pierre-Armand David
| birth_date = {{birth date|1826|9|7|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Espelette]], France
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1900|11|10|1826|9|7|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Paris]], France
| buried = 
| religion = Roman Catholicism
| parents = 
| occupation = Biologist
| module = {{Infobox scientist|child=yes
 |fields            = Botany, zoology
 |other_names       = Père David
 |workplaces        =
 |doctoral_advisor  =
 |academic_advisors =
 |doctoral_students =
 |notable_students  =
 |known_for         = Documenting species of Chinese [[flora]] and [[fauna]] exotic to Europe
 |author_abbrev_bot = '''David'''
 |author_abbrev_zoo = '''David'''
 }}
}}

'''Armand David''', CM (7 September 1826, [[Espelette]]&nbsp;&ndash; 10 November 1900, [[Paris]])<ref name="BnF">{{Cite web|author1=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Armand David (1826-1900)|url=https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb15360031w|website=data.bnf.fr|publisher=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]|accessdate=14 December 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214185331/https://data.bnf.fr/fr/15360031/armand_david/|archivedate=14 December 2018|location=[[Paris]]|language=fr|date=5 October 2018}}</ref> was a [[Congregation of the Mission|Lazarist]] [[missionary]] [[Catholic]] priest as well as a [[zoologist]] and a [[botanist]] from the [[French Basque Country]]. 

[[#Eponymous taxa|Several species]], such as [[Père David's deer]], are named after him — {{lang|fr|Père David}} being French for Father David.

==Biography==
[[Image:Espelette WWF.jpg|thumb|Multilingual plate at his birthplace from the [[World Wildlife Fund]], with text in [[Basque language|Basque]], French and English.]]
Born in [[Espelette]] near [[Bayonne]], in the north of [[Basque Country (historical territory)|Basque Country]], in [[Pyrénées-Atlantiques]] ''[[département]]'' of [[France]], he entered the [[Congregation of the Mission]] in 1848, having already displayed great fondness for the natural sciences. Ordained in 1851,<ref name="BnF"/> he was in 1862 sent to [[Beijing|Peking]], where he began a collection of material for a [[museum]] of [[natural history]], mainly [[zoology|zoological]], but in which [[botany]], [[geology]], and [[palaeontology]] were also well represented.

At the request of the [[France|French]] government, important specimens from his collection were sent to [[Paris]] and aroused the greatest interest. The [[Jardin des Plantes]] commissioned him to undertake scientific journeys through China to make further collections. He succeeded in obtaining many specimens of hitherto unknown animals and plants, and the value of his comprehensive collections for the advance of systematic zoology and especially for the advancement of animal [[geography]] received universal recognition from the scientific community at Paris in April, 1888. He had found in China all together 200 [[species]] of wild animals, of which 63 were hitherto unknown to zoologists, and 807 species of [[bird]]s, 65 of which had not been described before.<ref name="CE">{{CathEncy|wstitle=Armand David}}</ref> He made a large collection of [[reptile]]s, [[amphibian]]s, and [[fish]]es and handed it over to specialists for further study.  Also, a large number of [[moth]]s and [[insect]]s, many of them hitherto unknown, were brought to the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. What Father David's scientific journeys meant for [[botany]] may be inferred from the fact that among the [[rhododendron]]s which he collected no less than fifty-two new species were found and among the [[primula]]e about forty, while the Western Mountains of China furnished an even greater number of hitherto unknown species of [[gentian]].

The most notable of the animals 'found' by David, which were hitherto unknown to [[Europe]]ans, were the [[giant panda]] in [[Baoxing County]] and [[Père David's deer]]. The latter had disappeared with the exception of a few preserved in the [[garden]]s of the emperor of China, but David succeeded in securing a specimen and sent it to Europe. David also sent back the first [[emerald ash borer]] specimen.<ref>{{cite news|last=Miller |first=Matthew |title=Battle of the Ash Borer: Decades after Beetles Arrived in Michigan, Researchers Looking to Slow Devastation |url=http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20140727/NEWS01/307270001/Battle-ash-borer-Decades-after-beetles-arrived-Michigan-researchers-looking-slow-devastation |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140801175724/http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20140727/NEWS01/307270001/Battle-ash-borer-Decades-after-beetles-arrived-Michigan-researchers-looking-slow-devastation |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 August 2014|work=[[Lansing State Journal]]|accessdate=20 August 2014}}</ref> In the midst of his work as a naturalist Father David did not neglect his [[missionary]] labours, and was noted for his careful devotion to his religious duties and for his obedience to every detail of his order's rules.

{{botanist|David|David, Armand}}

==Eponymy==
The plants ''[[Buddleja davidii]]'' and ''[[Ulmus davidiana]]'', the David Elm, were named for him,<ref>{{cite news|title= Urban Perennial|newspaper= [[The Big Issue]]|first= Ben |last= Dark|date= 4 April 2022|page= 39}}</ref> and also ''[[Lilium davidii]]''. The fish ''[[Sarcocheilichthys davidi]]'' was  named in his honor by [[Henri Émile Sauvage]] in 1878, because Père David collected the type specimen.<ref name = ETYFish>{{cite web | url = http://www.etyfish.org/cypriniformes14/ | title = Order CYPRINIFORMES: Families ACHEILOGNATHIDAE, GOBIONIDAE and TANICHTHYIDAE | access-date = 3 March 2021 | author1 = Christopher Scharpf | author2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara | date = 22 September 2018 | archive-date = 29 September 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190929065546/http://www.etyfish.org/cypriniformes14/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> Père David's deer (''[[Elaphurus davidianus]]'') was likewise named after him by [[Alphonse Milne-Edwards]].

Père David's Rat Snake (''[[Elaphe|Elaphe davidi]]'') was named in his honor by [[Henri Émile Sauvage]] in 1884.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Père David", p. 203).</ref>

==See also==
*[[Catholic Church in Sichuan]]
*[[Catholic Church in China]]
*[[Jesuit China missions]]
*[[List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics]]

===Catholic missionaries in China===
*[[Michel Benoist]]
*[[Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit)|Giuseppe Castiglione]]
*Armand David
*[[Matteo Ricci]]
*[[Johann Adam Schall von Bell]]
*[[Ferdinand Verbiest]]
*[[St. Francis Xavier]]

===Eponymous taxa===
*[[Père David's tit]]
*[[Père David's deer]]
*''[[Davidia involucrata]]''
*[[Père David's snowfinch]]
*[[Père David's mole]]
*[[Père David's owl]]
*[[Père David's vole]]
*[[Père David's rock squirrel]]
*[[Plain laughingthrush|Père David's laughingthrush]]
*''[[Chinese giant salamander|Andrias davidianus]]''
*''[[Clematis armandii]]''
*''[[Buddleia davidii]]''
*''[[Viburnum davidii]]''
*''[[Acer davidii]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Armand David|first=James J.|last=Walsh}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090911223351/http://www.vincentians.org.au/Studies/ScottBDavid.pdf Père Jean Pierre Armand David CM], a biography by Bernard Scott

{{Christianity in Sichuan}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:David, Armand}}
[[Category:19th-century French botanists]]
[[Category:Botanists active in China]]
[[Category:19th-century French zoologists]]
[[Category:1826 births]]
[[Category:1900 deaths]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Sichuan]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in China]]
[[Category:Catholic clergy scientists]]
[[Category:French-Basque people]]
[[Category:French explorers]]
[[Category:Vincentians]]
[[Category:Zoological collectors]]
[[Category:French missionaries in China]]
[[Category:People from Labourd]]
[[Category:19th-century French Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Missionary botanists]]