Born in
Lyon, he was the son of engineer Eugene Locard. He was a student at
École Centrale Paris. He is considered one of the more prolific malacologists of the so-called "new school" with
Jules René Bourguignat (1828–1892) as his master. Locard is credited with describing hundreds of zoological species, in particular
freshwater mussels and
gastropods from the genus
Helix. During his career he did very little collecting of specimens himself, preferring to work in an institution/museum environment. In 1895, he revised the
conchological collection of
Jacques Philippe Raymond Draparnaud (1772–1804). Among his many publications are articles on the
geology of the Lyon region, and treatises on fossil and living
mollusks. He was the author of detailed biographies of naturalists, such as
Martial Étienne Mulsant (1797–1880) and
Gaspard Michaud (1795–1880), and also wrote an article on Lyonnaise malacologists, titled
Malacologistes lyonnais (1879). In 1877 he published
Malacologie Lyonnaise; ou Description des mollusques terrestres & aquatiques des environs de Lyons (1877), based on
Ange Paulin Terver's collection of terrestrial and aquatic mollusks found in the vicinity of Lyon. In 1893
Philippe Thomas published the palaeontology results of the Tunisian Scientific Exploration Mission (1885–86) in six instalments plus an atlas, giving the work of
Victor-Auguste Gauthier (
sea urchins), Arnould Locard (
Mollusca), Auguste Péron (
Brachiopods,
Bryozoa and
Pentacrinitess) and
Henri Émile Sauvage (
fish). Locard was a member of the
Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Lyon (1879–1904), the
Société française de malacologie, the
Société géologique de France and the
Société linnéenne de Lyon 1881–1904, president- 1882). He was a founding member of the
Association lyonnaise des amis des sciences naturelles. == Principal works ==