Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel was born in 1774 in Valenciennes, Nord, and died on 10 January 1846 in Paris.
After studies in Douai, he joined the French Army when he was sixteen years old and took part in the campaigns of 1795 and 1796.
After twelve years of effort, Duponchel finished in 1838 L’Histoire naturelle des lépidoptères de France, co-authored with Jean Baptiste Godart.
The volumes were published between 1832 and 1842, and within its pages the authors describe more than four thousand species of butterflies and moths.
7 April 1804),[1] studied architecture and was an accountant first class at the Ministère de la Guerre, and his son Auguste (d. October 1846) was chief medical officer of l'Ecole polytechnique.