John David Digues La Touche

La Touche entered the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in China in 1882.^[1]

During his time in China, he made extensive ornithological observations and collections, resulting in many important publications.^[1] Notably, he wrote A Handbook of the Birds of Eastern China, consisting of two volumes and altogether ten parts that were published in 1925–1934 (Taylor & Francis, London).^[4] He also made other collections, including reptiles and amphibians.^[5]

In 1921, he retired to Dublin and later lived in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow.^[1]

La Touche's free-tailed bat, La Touche's mole, and La Touche's frog are named after him. A species of Chinese snake, Opisthotropis latouchii, is named in his honour.^[6] Also, a genus of spider Latouchia in the family Halonoproctidae was presumably named after him as co-collector of the Chinese type species, alongside fellow naturalist Mr. C.B. Rickett. Else, a genus of flowering plants from China named Latouchea, belonging to the family Gentianaceae can also be an honorific as collected by both La Touche and his wife.^[7][8] The specific epithet of fokienensis resembles the maiden name of La Touche's wife, née Caroline Dawson Focken (1871–1945). However Fokien is a historical name for the Fujian region of China, and the -ensis denotes being "of/from a place". This uses the Latin nominative case, together meaning "of/from Fokien". For honorific species names involving people, in contrast. The genitive case of Latin is typically used.

• Further Notes on the Birds of the Province of Fohkien in South-east China (1917)