Jan Roubal was born in Chudenice on 16 August 1880. Not far from this village, when he was just 14 years old and influenced by his teacher at elementary school, he was the first person in Bohemia to discover an unknown bark beetle, Hylestinus crenatus. He continued to take an interest in entomology not only at the Klatovy grammar school, but also from 1900 at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where he studied the natural sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, Czech, German, philosophy and pedagogy. From 1922 Roubal was an active member of the Natural Science Club in Prague and is also associated with the work of the Czech Entomological Society (from 1918 the Czechoslovak Entomological Society). At the instigation of his teacher, Antonín Frič, he worked with the zoological department of the National Museum in Prague. After finishing his studies Roubal worked as a teacher in Prague, Roudnice nad Labem, Příbram and Banská Bystrica. However, his intensive entomological research was not limited to these places and their surroundings, as he also studied a number of other sites in Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and all over Europe. He published the results of his research in numerous journals in this country and abroad. At least 30 beetles have been named after Roubal, as well as one entire genus, Roubaliella (in 1925 by the Frenchman R. Jeannel). However, from 1950 Roubal abandoned his study of beetles and decided to focus on researching true bugs.
During his life he became a member of dozens of European entomological or natural science societies and built up an extensive entomological library (now part of the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic). In 1960, when it was donated to the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava, his collection of beetles, which was focused primarily on Europe, North Africa and Asia, contained 158 200 specimens. Roubal also made a name for himself in the field of nature conservation, particularly advocating the protection of large territories. Jan Roubal died in 1971 in Prague and is buried at the cemetery in his native village of Chudenice.
