Ignacio Bolivar Urrutia Biography

Ignacio Bolívar Urrutia

(Madrid, 1850-Mexico, 1944) Spanish naturalist.He is considered one of the world's leading specialists in the study of a certain group of insects, the Orthoptera, on which he wrote, in 1900, a Synoptic Catalog of the Orthopterans of the Iberian fauna .

He studied Law (although he never practiced it) and natural sciences at the University of Madrid.In 1875 he obtained by opposition the position of assistant at the Museum of Natural Sciences and, two years later, that of professor of entomology at the University of Madrid.As a researcher, he devoted himself to entomology, especially the Orthoptera and Hemiptera.He formed the entomological collections of the Museum and the University, and contributed to regularly review the orthopterological collections gathered in the museums of Lisbon, Paris, Oxford and other foreign cities.

His first important publication on the subject was a Synopsis (1876) of the Orthopterans of the Iberian Peninsula.In the following decade another outstanding study of his appeared, in which he analyzed the materials related to arthropods existing in the Museum of Madrid and from the expedition to the Pacific carried out, between 1862 and 1865, by a team of Spanish naturalists in which he appeared , among others, Marcos Jiménez de la Espada.

Bolívar described in later monographic works several new genera, especially from the families of the tetigonidae and the acrididae.Between 1912 and 1918, his research was collected in the series entitled Entomological Studies , published by the Board for the Expansion of Studies.From the Museum of Natural Sciences, Bolívar also led an authentic renewal of biological studies in Spain, and gathered around him a group of researchers dedicated mainly to work on lower animals.

This same group began in our country studies on the new Mendelmorganian genetics, work in which José Fernández Nonídez and Antonio Zulueta, both disciples of Bolívar, stood out.In 1871, while still a student, Bolívar was one of the founders of the Spanish Society of Natural History, in whose tasks he then actively participated throughout his life.In 1898 he entered the Royal Academy of Sciences of Madrid and was also an honorary member of a large number of foreign zoological and entomological associations.In 1929, shortly before his retirement, an international tribute was paid to him and a volume was published in his honor with more than a hundred works dedicated to him by entomologists from around the world.

Since his youth he was linked to the Free Institution of Education.He defended the ideological and pedagogical orientations of the Institution when he was counselor of Public Instruction, especially when participating in the reform of the science faculties that took place at the beginning of this century.Despite his advanced age, Bolívar had to go into exile due to the civil war.