Giacomo Doria


Marquis Giacomo Doria was an Italian naturalist, botanist, herpetologist, and politician.
He was the founder of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Genoa in 1867, and director from then until his death. It is now named for him as the Natural History Museum of Giacomo Doria.
He collected numerous samples of plants, shells, butterflies, other insects and various animals in Persia with Filippo de Filippi, in Sarawak with Odoardo Beccari, in the Red Sea and in Tunisia.
He was an avid entomologist. In 1891 he was elected President of the Royal Italian Geographical Society.
In the scientific field of herpetology, he described many new species of amphibians and reptiles, including several he described with Wilhelm Peters. He is commemorated in the scientific names of eight reptiles: Agama doriae, Ptyas doriae, Gonocephalus doriae, Homalophis doriae, Latastia doriai, Scincella doriae, Stenodactylus doriae, and Tropidonophis doriae.
Some other animals are named after him, Doria's tree kangaroo, Doria's goshawk, Doria's cave beetle, yellow Iranian scorpion, Doria's frog, Doria's slug, a species of harvestman, various species of weevils.
In 1891, the Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego named after Doria, the main tributary of the Jubba River, that′s now called Ganale Doria River.
He was also mayor of Genoa for few months in 1891.