French naturalist and administrator who collected extensively while based in the United States during the French Revolution. Born in Paris, Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc studied in Dijon and later took botany courses from A.-L. de Jussieu although he initially worked for the French postal service (1784-1788). During The Terror of the French Revolution he hid away in a house in Montmorency but was later able to leave and become a French consul in New York.

Although the exact dates differ between sources, he was in the United States during the late 1790s and was based in Charleston for some time, conducting extensive collecting trips throughout the Carolinas. While there Bosc took an interest in reptiles and amphibians, discovering and naming several new species, but also collected and painted fish, birds and plants as well as being amongst the first to study arachnids in North America.

Bringing his specimens to colleagues in Paris, most of his discoveries were published by others although Bosc did produce three volumes of the vast natural history collection, Suites á Buffon, on shells and worms (1801) and on crustaceans (1802). On his return Bosc worked for a while as administrator of hospitals and prisons, before he was named inspector of the gardens of Versailles in 1803 and of the state gardens from 1806. From 1825 he served as professor at the Jardin des Plants in Paris. In 1787 Bosc was a founding member of the Société Linnéenne de Paris, the first Linnean society in the world.

Sources:
B. Dyrat, 2003, Les botanistes et la flore de France
F. Harper, 1940, "Some Works of Bartram, Daudin, Latreille, and Sonnini, and Their Bearing Upon North American Herpetological Nomenclature", American Midland Naturalist, 23(3): 692-723
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2).

Sources:
E.H. Daniel and J.H. Daniel de Saint Antoine, 1832, Biographies des homes de Seine et Oise
EF.X. de Feller, 1851, Biographie Universelle.