Guillaume-Antoine Olivier

Guillaume-Antoine Olivier (19 January 1756, Toulon – 1 October 1814, Lyon) was a French entomologist.

Olivier studied medicine in Montpellier, where he became good friends with Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet. With Jean Guillaume Bruguière and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, he collaborated in the creation of Journal d'Histoire Naturelle (1792). Afterwards, he served as a naturalist on a 6-year scientific journey that took him to Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt, Cyprus and Corfu. He returned to France in 1798 with a large collection of natural history specimens from his travels. Later, he was associated with the École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort, where in 1811, he was appointed professor of zoology. Olivier was a close friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a patron of Pierre André Latreille.

Although primarily an entomologist, Olivieri also worked in the scientific field of herpetology, describing several new species of Asian lizards. He also described a few plant species, including Prunus arabica and Quercus libani.

Olivier was the author of Coléoptères Paris Baudouin 1789 -1808 (11 editions), Entomologie, ou histoire naturelle des Insectes (1808) and Le Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman, l'Égypte et la Perse (1807). He was a contributor to Encyclopédie Méthodique.

Today, most of his collection is housed at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

A species of lizard, Mesalina olivieri, is named in his honor.