Leonardo Fea

Leonardo Fea

Leonardo Fea (born July 24, 1852 in Turin ; † April 27, 1903 there ) was an Italian explorer, zoologist, draftsman and animal collector.

Live and act

Fea was the son of Paul Fea, a professor of painting at the Accademia Albertina, and his wife Anna Roda. Influenced by his father, Fea learned to draw at an early age, especially on wood. In 1871 he became an assistant in the entomological department of the Museo di storia naturale Giacomo Doria in Genoa . From 1885 to 1889 he brought together entomological and ornithological collections in Burma . In 1896 he wrote the book "Quattro Anni fra I Birmani e le Tribu Limitrofe", which is considered his main work. Next Fea planned an expedition to Malaysia , which he was unable to carry out due to his poor health. Because of the dry climate, he chose the Macaronesia archipelago in 1898 . Fea was disappointed with the number of species in the archipelago, although he managed to collect 47 species of birds, eleven of which were first recorded in Macaronesia. Among them was the Cape Verde petrel ( Pterodroma fea ), which was described by Fea's friend Tommaso Salvadori in 1899 . During his stay on the Cape Verde Islands , Fea was one of the last researchers to find a living specimen of the now extinct Cape Verde giant skink ( Chioninia coctei ). Fea made his last excursions to the Gulf of Guinea and to Portuguese West Africa (today's Angola ) (1899–1901). Feas collections can be found in the Museo di Storia Naturale in Genoa.

Dedication names

Various taxa are named after Fea, including the Fea viper ( Azemiops fea ) (1888 by George Albert Boulenger ), the Cape Verde petrel ( Pterodroma fea ) (1899 by Tommaso Salvadori ), the Fead thrush ( Turdus feae ) (1887 by Salvadori ), the São Tomé spectacle bird ( Zosterops feae ) (1901 by Salvadori), the Fea tree rat ( Chiromyscus chiropus ) (1891 by Oldfield Thomas ), Murina feae (1891 by Thomas) the Tenasserim muntjac ( Muntiacus feae ) (1889 by Thomas and Giacomo Doria ), the São Tomé blind snake ( Rhinotyphlops feae ) (1906 by Boulenger) and Rhacophorus feae (1893 by Boulenger).

literature

• Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird ?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate . Yale University Press, London 2004, ISBN 978-0300103595 .
• Maurizia Alippi Cappelletti: FEA, Leonardo. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 45 (1995) ( Online )