Gustavo Mendes de Oliveira Castro, Brazilian biologist (Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro 24 January 1904 - Rio de Janeiro 22 November 1978)
ACHIEVEMENTS
Enunciated law of phylogenesis and succession
Filogenese e sucessão. Anais Acad. Bras. Ciencias 18(2):121-5, 1946
Co-authored with Stanley A. Cain Manual of vegetation analysis (1959), an influent book on phytosociology
With J.M. Pires & N.T. da Silva authored the paper Application of some phytosociological techniques to Brazilian rain forest. Amer. J. Bot. 43(10):911-41, 1956 with great repercussion in this field
METHODS / DEVICES
Um método de análise de populações vegetais. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 45(3):572-86, 1947
Developed a staining method for protozoan and bacteria
Developed a staining method for Koch bacilli nodules
Staining nodules of the leprosy bacillus. Lepr.Rev. 18(2-3):45-9, 1947
Emprego da ocular interferencial de Françon no exame de réplicas de material biológico. Rev. Bras. Biol. 21(4):467-70, 1961
Sobre a causa das “cores metálicas” dos olhos dos Tabanidas assim como uma técnica para restabelecer as mesmas em exemplares secos de museus. Jorn. Comm. (1935)
Invented two types of shovels for collecting mosquito larvae samples
Developed Castro aspirator for collecting Diptera
DESCRIBED DIPTERA TAXA
Chrysochiton 1936 with Lutz
Culex carcinoxenus 1932
Esenbeckia arcusta 1935 with Lutz
Laphromyia longipalpis 1937 with Lutz
Limatus flavisetosus 1935 with Lutz
HONORS
Subgenus Castromyia 1942 Mangabeira Filho (Diptera)
His son, Gustavo de Oliveira Castro, neurophysiologist (Rio de Janeiro 20 May 1931 – 2002)
Authored Branching pattern of amacrine cell processes. Nature 212:832-4, 1966
Described the changes of optical features in avian retina
With H. Martins Ferreira. Light-scattering changes accompanying spreading depression in isolated retina. J. Neurophysiol. 29:715, 1966
Proposed the retina as experimental model of spreading cortical depression
With H. Martins Ferreira. Deformations and thickness variations accompanying spreading depression in the retina. J. Neurophysiol. (1970)
Proposed circling wave for studying the retina model
With C.J. Struchiner. H.M. Ferreira & P.S. Rodrigues. Circling spreading depression in isolated chick retina. J. Neurophysiol. 37:773-84, 1974