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)