Giraldo Alayón

Giraldo Alayón García (born December 5, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños ) is a Cuban biologist . His research focus is arachnology .

Life

From 1966 Alayón studied physics and from 1968 biology at the University of Havana , where he graduated in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in entomology . From 1974 to 1982 he was head of the entomological department at the former zoological institute of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. Between 1982 and 1984 he worked as a teacher for a number of universities and secondary schools, teaching in a variety of subjects including astronomy, biology, physics and English. From 1984 to 1985 he was a biologist at the Ministry of Health. From 1985 to 1988 he worked in the main department for nature protection of the Empresa Nacional para la Protección de la Flora y Fauna. In 1988 he became a curator at the Spider Department of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Havana . In 2000 he received his doctorate in science from the University of Havana.

Alayón is one of the leading spider experts in the Caribbean. He has more than 150 articles on the systematics and biogeography of spiders and other arthropods in the region, as well as The Spiders and Their Relatives of St. Vincent & the Grenadines in 2007 and The history of scientific relations between Cuba in 2017 and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). 160 years of collecting and collaborating (1857-2017) published.

In addition to arachnology, Alayón deals with ornithology . He has been a professional bird watcher since 1977 and has published 15 scientific articles on the Cuban avifauna . In 1986, along with Lester L. Short , Jennifer F. Horne, George B. Reynard and Alberto R. Estrada, he was part of a team of scientists who managed to rediscover the Cuban ivory woodpecker ( Campephilus principalis bairdii ) at short notice. In March 1987 he undertook another expedition with his wife Aimé Posada and Alberto Estrada to the mountain region of Cuchillas del Toa in eastern Cuba, which has been part of the Alexander von Humboldt National Park since 2001 . The team was able to observe a female again, which is the last official proof of the continued existence of the Cuban ivory woodpecker.

Alayón traveled to various islands in the Lesser Antilles and visited the United States several times, where he worked at the American Museum of Natural History , at the Smithsonian Institution , at the Museum of Comparative Zoology , at the Field Museum of Natural History , at the Academy of Natural Sciences , at Peabody Museum of Natural History , the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and the California Academy of Sciences . From 1995 to 2001 he was President of the Cuban Zoological Society.

Dedication names

In 2010 the spider species Cubanops alayoni was named after Giraldo Alayón

The anole species Anolis alayoni and the spider species Cyclosa alayoni , Citharacanthus alayoni , Centruroides alayoni and Cubanops alayoni are named after Alayón .

Web links

• Curriculum Vitae and Bibliography (as of 2015)
• Short profile at the Caribbean Conservation Trust
• Brief profile at the Center for Special Studies and Programs