Moisés Santiago Bertoni, Swiss-born Paraguayan naturalist (Lottigna, Ticino Canton 15 June 1857 – Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná State, Brazil 19 September 1929)

His original name was Mosé Giacomo Bertoni

Authored works on agronomy, botany, zoology, meteorology, ethnography and language of Guarani people (nearly 540 publications)

ACHIEVEMENTS

Agriculture

Developed new agricultural methods

Nuevo metodo para el cultivo del banana: práctica del “rozado sin quemar”  (1911)

Plant Pathology

Una nueva enfermedad del cafeto. Rev. Agric. Cien. Apl. Paraguay 1(4-5):211-73, 1898

La gomosis de los citrus y un nuevo medio preventivo y curativo. An. Cient. Paraguayos (1919)

Meteorology

Invented a drosometer and a phyto-thermometer (1905)

Chemistry

Classified Stevia rebaudiana (1905), source of a sweet flavor glycoside stevioside   

La Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. La estevina y la rebaudina. Nuevas substancias edulcorantes. An. Cient. Paraguayos 2(6):29-134, 1918 

Botany

DESCRIBED VALID PLANTAE TAXA

Ananas strictus 1913

Jussiaea leveillana 1910

Pavonia restiaria 1911

Rollinia viridis 1913

Stevia rebaudiana 1899

Vanilla bertoniensis 1910

Vigna asparaginea 1913

Vigna brasilica 1913

Vigna inga 1913

Vigna oryzina 1913

Vigna serotina 1913

Vigna sulphurea 1913

Vigna tonkinensis 1913

His son, Arnoldo da Winkelried Bertoni, Paraguayan zoologist (Swiss 28 December 1878 – Asunción 1973)

Enunciated laws about pre-historic and fossil deposits

Leyes sobre yacimientos prehistoricos y fosiles. Rev. Soc. Cient. Paraguay 2(6):265, 1930

DESCRIBED  

AVES

Family

Genera

Campylorhamphus  1901

Myiornis 1901

Species/Subespecies  

Drymophila rubricollis 1901

Pulsathrix koeniswaldiana 1901 (with his father)

Zenaida auriculata virgata 1901

Strix virgata borelliana 1901

Buteo magnirostris magniplumis 1901

Phaethornis eurynome paraguayensis 1901 (with his father)

Penelope superciliaris major 1901

Euphonia violacea aurantiicollis 1901

Chamaeza campanisona tshororo 1901

Asio stygius barberoi 1930

HYMENOPTERA

Genera

Zeteumenes 1921

Amphimenes 1923

Protozethus 1925

Alphamenes 1934

Beteumenes 1934

Paramortonia 1934

Species

Described nearly 50 new species from Paraguay

With Schouten described a fungi species Fusarium riarti (1934)

HONORS  

Bertoniella Rehn 1911 (Orthoptera)