Biography

Italian aristocrat and naturalist, born in Tiganesti, Romania, the son of the Italian Prince Emanuele Ruspoli of Poggio Suasa (1838-1899) and Greek Caterina Vogorides-Konaki (1831-1870). He was a member of the Royal Italian Geographic Society and donated his collections to the Regio Erbario e Museo Coloniale of Rome, later transferred to the tropical herbarium in Florence (FT). During his second expedition to north-east Africa (1892-1893) he was killed by an elephant on the 4th December 1893 while hunting in the territory of the Amara Burgi in present-day Somalia. [He is sometimes cited incorrectly as C.E. Ruspoli, for example in the ... of Cuscuta somaliensis Yunck.]. His natural history collections include entomological material, reptiles, birds and mammals. He is commemorated by a number of taxa including Cissus ruspolii Gilg (= Cayratia ruspolii (Gilg) Suess.), Ceropegia ruspoliana K.Schum. and Thunbergia ruspolii Lindau.