Alfredo Borelli Explained

Alfredo Borelli (18 November 1858, in Marseilles – 6 May 1943, in Boves, Piedmont) was a French-born Italian zoologist, who worked mainly in Turin but who, early in his natural history career, conducted field work in South America.

Borelli graduated in law from Aix University in 1888 and practised as a lawyer in Marseilles for a while before deciding to follow his interest in the natural sciences, going to his family's home country of Italy and graduating from the University of Turin in 1886. He worked in Munich and Berlin but most of his scientific career was spent at the institute of zoology of the University of Turin, from where he retired in 1930.^[1]

He worked at the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino from 1900 to 1913.^[2] The gecko Homonota borellii,^[2] the amphisbaenian Amphisbaena borelli,^[3] the millipede Urostreptus borellii (Silvestri, 1895)and the cichlid Apistogramma borellii are among the taxa named in honor of Borelli.^[4] He carried out field work in Bolivia,^[5] Argentina, and Paraguay where he collected specimens,^[6] and many of his specimens were described by Mario Giacinto Peracca.^[7]

Taxon named in his honor

Hypostomus borellii is a species of catfish in the family Loricariidae. It is native to the upper and middle Pilcomayo River basin in Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: BORELLI, Alfredo . di Baccio Beccetti . Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 12 (1971) . 17 November 2018 . Treccani . Italian.
2. Web site: Homonota borellii (PERACCA, 1897) . 17 November 2018 . The Reptile Database.
3. Web site: Amphisbaena borelli PERACCA, 1897 . 17 November 2018 . The Reptile Database.
4. Web site: Order CICHLIFORMES: Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily CICHLINAE (d-w) . 17 November 2018 . Scharpf, Christopher . Lazara, Kenneth J. . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 22 September 2018.
5. Freshwater fishes of Argentina: Etymologies of species names dedicated to persons . 17 November 2018 . Koerber, Stefan . 2011 . Ichthyological Contributions of Peces Criollos . 18 . 1–18.
6. Book: Beolens, Bo . Watkins, Michael . Grayson, Michael . 2011 . The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles . 32 . Baltimore . Johns Hopkins University Press . 978-1-4214-0135-5.
7. Peracca MG . Mario Giacinto Peracca . 1895 . Viaggio del dottor Alfredo Borelli nella Repubblica Argentina e nel Paraguay. X. Rettili ed anfibi . Bollettino dei Musei di Zoologia ed Anatomia Comparata della R[egia]. Università di Torino . 10 . 195 . 1–31 . (in Italian)
8. Web site: Family LORICARIIDAE: Subfamily HYPOSTOMINAE Kner 1853 (Suckermouth Catfishes or Plecos) . 9 August 2024 . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 22 September 2018.