Giovanni Passerini was an Italian

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

, born on June 16, 1816 in Pieve di Guastalla. He died on April 17, 1893 in

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. In 1836 he studied medicine at the

University of Parma The University of Parma ( it, Università degli Studi di Parma, UNIPR) is a public university in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is organised in nine departments. As of 2016 the University of Parma has about 26,000 students. History During the ...

, where from 1844 onward, he was a professor of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and director of the

Orto Botanico di Parma The Orto Botanico di Parma, also known as the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Parma, is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Parma. It is located on the Viale Martiri della Libertà, Parma, Italy, and open daily without charge. T ...

.BHL
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications He is the author of several works on the

aphids Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

. His collection, of 5,500 specimens in 52

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

kinds and 89

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, is in the natural history museum of the University of Parma. In 1875, he was the first president of the Italian-Parma section of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which ...

(Club Alpino Italiano a Parma). With

Vincenzo de Cesati Vincenzo de Cesati (1806–1883) was an Italian botanist from Milan. He studied natural history and law at the University of Vienna, and afterwards worked as a volunteer at the Collegium Nacionale de Vercelli. From 1868 to 1883 he was direc ...

and

Giuseppe Gibelli Giuseppe Gibelli (9 February 1831 – 16 September 1898) was an Italian botanist and lichenologist who was a native of Santa Cristina e Bissone. He originally studied medicine, earning his medical doctorate at the University of Pavia. Later h ...

, he was co-author of a compendium of Italian flora, titled "''Compendio della flora italiana''". In 1875

Pier Andrea Saccardo Pier Andrea Saccardo (23 April 1845 in Treviso, Treviso – 12 February 1920 in Padua) was an Italian botanist and mycologist. Life Saccardo studied at the Lyceum in Venice, and then at the Technical Institute of the University of Padua wher ...

named the fungal genus '' Passerinula'' in his honor. Then in 1892,

Augusto Napoleone Berlese Augusto Napoleone Berlese (21 October 1864, in Padua – 26 January 1903, in Milan) was an Italian botanist and mycologist. He was the brother of entomologist Antonio Berlese 1863–1927, with whom he founded the journal ''Rivista di patolo ...

named the fungal genus '' Passeriniella'' in his honor as well.

Major works

*Gli insetti autori delle galle del Terebinto e del Lentisco insieme ad alcune specie congeneri. Giornale Giardini Orticolt. 3: 258–265 (1856). *Gli afidi con un prospetto dei generi ed alcune specie nuove Italiane. Parma : Tipografia Carmignani 40 pp. (1860). *Aphididae Italicae hucusque observatae. Arch. Zool. Anat. Fisiol. 2: 129–212 (1863).

References

*Cesare Conci et Roberto Poggi (1996), Iconography of Italian Entomologists, with essential biographical data. ''Memorie della Società entomologica Italiana'', 75 : 159–382. {{DEFAULTSORT:Passerini, Giovanni 1816 births 1893 deaths People from Reggio Emilia Academic staff of the University of Parma Italian entomologists 19th-century Italian botanists