Filippo Silvestri: podcast appearances and interviews

Filippo Silvestri was an Italian entomologist born on 22 June 1873 in Bevagna and died on 10 June 1949. He specialized in the study of several insect groups including Protura, Thysanura, Diplura, and Isoptera, and also conducted research on Hymenoptera, Myriapoda, Italian Diptera, and South American ground pearls. He is notably recognized for defining and naming the previously unknown insect order Zoraptera. Silvestri served as the Director of the Institute of Entomology and Zoology at the agricultural college in Portici for 45 years, a position he assumed in 1904, and was an assistant to Giovanni Battista Grassi at the University of Rome. In 1938, he was elected a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Silvestri was a prolific researcher; he discovered polyembryony in the 1930s while studying Hymenoptera and published extensively on termites. His collection of specimens is housed at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, with duplicates in the Swedish Museum of Natural History and some types in Berlin. In recognition of his contributions, a square in his hometown of Bevagna, a high school in Portici, and a street in Rome are named after him. Additionally, a South American worm lizard Species, Amphisbaena silvestrii, bears his name in his honor.