Alfredo Borelli


Alfredo Borelli was a French-born Italian zoologist, who worked mainly in Turin but who, early in his natural history career, conducted field work in South America.
Borelli graduated in law from Aix University in 1888 and practised as a lawyer in Marseilles for a while before deciding to follow his interest in the natural sciences, going to his family's home country of Italy and graduating from the University of Turin in 1886. He worked in Munich and Berlin but most of his scientific career was spent at the institute of zoology of the University of Turin, from where he retired in 1930.
He worked at the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino from 1900 to 1913. The gecko Homonota borellii, the amphisbaenian Amphisbaena borelli, and the cichlid Apistogramma borellii are among the taxa named in honor of Borelli. He carried out field work in Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay where he collected specimens, and many of his specimens were described by Mario Giacinto Peracca.