Robert John Lechmere Guppy
Robert John Lechmere Guppy (born August 15, 1836 in London , † August 5, 1916 in San Fernando , Trinidad ) was a British natural scientist after whom the guppy was named.
Life
Robert Guppy was one of four children of lawyer Robert Guppy and the painter and (one of the first) photographer Amelia Parkinson. “Lechmere”, as he was called, was raised by his grandparents Richard Parkinson and Lucy Lechmere in Kinnersley Kaschdel , a 13th century Norman castle in Hereford .
Guppy left England at the age of 18. In 1856 he was shipwrecked off the coast of New Zealand and lived with Māori for two years . During this time he mapped the area. He then left New Zealand and traveled to Trinidad, where his parents lived. There he married Alice Rostant, the daughter of a local French Creole planter, and became Trinidad's first school principal. Although he had no formal training in the field, he published numerous scientific articles on molluscs and Caribbean fossils .
The fish named Guppy
In 1866, guppy caught some fish he had never seen before. Because these animals seemed so interesting to him, he sent them to the head of the zoological department of the British Museum , Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther (1830–1914). He examined the animals and determined that it would be a new species, which he named "Girardinus guppyi" in honor of guppy. It was later discovered, however, that this species was found in 1856 by Wilhelm Peters (1815-1883) and described in 1859 under the name Poecilia reticulata . Nevertheless, "Guppy" established itself as a common name for this species.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Guppy, Robert John Lechmere |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British naturalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 15, 1836 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 5, 1916 |
| Place of death | San Fernando , Trinidad |