Damaso Antonio Larrañaga

Name and Identifiers
Other/given name(s) : 
Damaso Antonio
Family name: 
Larrañaga
Personal information
Areas of professional interest : 
  • He described two species: Pediculus ratti Larrañaga, 1824 and Pediculus lari Larrañaga, 1824.

Birth Date: 
1771-12-09
Date of Death: 
1848-02-16
Biography: 

He began his studies at the Convent of San Francisco, which continues today as the Royal College of San Carlos in Buenos Aires and later was ordained a priest in Cordoba, Argentina. As early as 1804, he showed a keen interest in botany. For his first descriptions, he relied almost solely on Gmelin's reference to the 13th edition of Linnaeus. Larrañaga was also interested in zoology and paleontology. In 1816 he founded Uruguay's first National Library and in 1837, though blind, became the co-founder of the Museum of Natural History. In addition to these activities he had a prominent public, political and social life, as a priest and vicar of Montevideo. His writings were published between 1922 and 1930 in three volumes of text and an atlas of two plates. His writings on parasites are reviewed by Enrique G. Vogelsang, in"Los Parásitos de Larrañaga", 1928.

Associated images: 
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith