Pinto da Fonseca, José

• José Pinto da Fonseca

José Pinto da Fonseca was born in 1896 in the Mariana municipality, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

He was a Brazilian entomologist, a founder of the Brazilian Society of Entomology, an important collector, and preparator of birds. In 1912, he started his studies in the humanities, philosophy, and theology at the Seminário de Mariana. Here, he began to dedicate himself to the knowledge of biological sciences, influenced by his mentors in natural sciences. He collected many animal specimens, including insects, some of which were sent to the Museu Paulista (today the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo). Da Fonseca joined the museum as a travelling naturalist in 1919. He had a remarkable career. At the end of the 1920s, he was hired as a technical assistant in entomology at the Biological Institute of São Paulo and, during the same period, founded the Adolph Hempel Entomological Institute at this institution. He was a pioneer of biological control in Brazil due to his studies on the use of the wasp Prorops nasuta Waterson, 1923, in the control of the “Broca-do-Café” (coffee berry borer), Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari, 1867). In 1937, he became a founding member and the first president of the Brazilian Society of Entomology. In 1938, he became the chair of the Entomology Section of the Instituto Biológico, a position he held until his retirement in 1966. Over his prolific career, he published hundreds of studies.

He died in 1982.