Alexander Yersin (entomologist)

Jean-Alexandre-Marc Yersin (5 April 1825, in Morges – 2 September 1863, in Lavaux) was a Swiss entomologist.

Jean-Alexandre-Marc Yersin was a teacher and entomologist. His entomological interests included Dermaptera and Orthoptera. The grasshopper species Yersinella Raimondi was so named in his honour in 1860. Yersin had three children with his wife, Fanny Moschell. He died three weeks before the birth of Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin, who became famous for discovering the causative agent of the plague, the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The renowned son developed his interest in biology at the age of eight, finding and inspecting his father's collection of insects. This collection is now conserved in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Vienna) and in the Natural History Museum of Geneva. His publications include Sur quelques Orthoptères nouveaux ou peu connus du midi de la France ''Bull. Soc. vaud. Hist. nat., 8 p., 1 plate (1854) and Note sur quelques Orthoptères nouveaux ou peu connus d'Europes Ann. Soc. ent. Fr.'', pp. 509–537, pl. 10 (1860).