Last week I got the sad news about the passing of French scorpion researcher Gerard Dupre at the age of 78. I had regularly contact with Gerard and he was a supporter of The Scorpion Files and often sent me new articles long before I discovered them myself. I'm very grateful for all his help all these years and he will be missed.
Eric Ythier has sent me some facts about Gerard's life and carrier.
Gerard first encounter with a scorpion was in 1974 during his crossing of the Sahara. He then developed a passion for scorpions due to his regular trips in Africa. His meeting with Profs. Max Vachon and Max Goyffon solidified this passion. He became a corresponding member of Paris Museum (MNHN) and he founded in 1989 the first French arachnology association (“Groupe d’Etudes des Arachnides”, GEA) with up to 300 members. Together with this association he created the Journal “Arachnides”, published quarterly, stopped in 2002 in its paper version (53 no.) then started again in 2008 in electronic version (downloadable on The Scorpion Files). Last no. 125 was published in Jan 2026.
Gerard was always very much involved in the bibliography of scorpions since his participation together with Prof. Jacqueline Heurtault to the “list of arachnological publications” at MNHN’s International Center of Arachnological Documentation (“Centre International de Documentation Arachnologique, CIDA)”. Author of the very useful “Worldwide blibliography of scorpions from antiquity to nowadays”, started in 1998 and updated every year. He was author of numerous articles about scorpion biology and of numerous useful faunistic synopses by country, region, continent etc. Also, an author of regular taxonomical list updates. He also authored two books on scorpion rearing, one in French (“Les scorpions, Biologie, Elevage”, 1998) and one in English (“Scorpions, guide to captive breeding”, 2010). He also held regular public and school presentations to raise awareness about scorpions.
In 2016 Gerard got a scorpion species named after him: Buthus duprei Rossi & Tropea, 2016.
Finally, it is important to mention that he was always kind to help scorpion colleagues in providing missing papers and his help and contributions will be missed by many in the scorpion community.
RIP
Eric Ythier & Jan Ove Rein
