Alfredo Dugès

Who was Alfredo Dugès?

Alfredo Dugès; was a French-born, Mexican physician and naturalist born in Montpellier. He was the son of zoologist Antoine Louis Dugès. Alfredo Dugès is largely remembered for his extensive studies of Mexican herpetology.

He studied medicine at the University of Paris, and in 1852 emigrated to Mexico. He settled in Guanajuato, where he worked as an obstetrician, also giving classes in natural history at the Escuela de Estudios Superiores de Guanajuato. With his brother, entomologist Eugenio Dugès, he organized frequent field trips in order to collect specimens.

Dugès published numerous scientific papers in the fields of herpetology, botany, entomology, et al. At Guanajuato, he was director of the local museum, later named the Museo Alfredo Dugès in his honor. In Mexico, he described 40 new species of reptiles and amphibians, of which nearly half are considered valid today. As a botanist, he is the taxonomic authority of the genus Barcena.