Eugenio Ruspoli

Prince Eugenio Ruspoli (Țigănești, 6 January 1866 – near Burgi, Somalia,[1] 4 December 1893) was an Italian explorer and naturalist.

[3] He was the second son of Emanuele Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Poggio Suasa, a politician, and his first wife, the Romanian princess Cocuța Conachi.

Prince Eugenio Ruspoli was inspired to explore Africa by meeting the Polish Count Frackenstein.

[6] His second expedition took place from 1892 to 1893, when he passed through Bardera on 3 April 1892, in order to confirm a convention stipulating the Kingdom of Italy's protectorate over the region.

[10] According to the account American explorer Arthur Donaldson Smith heard from one of the Amhara people, Ruspoli fired at an elephant which grasped him in its trunk, swung him about in the air and then trampled him to death.

[14] He is also honoured in the names of plants, including a genus Ruspolia (in the Acanthaceae family),[15] and several other species such as Indigofera ruspoli Baker f.,[16] and Lopriorea ruspolii (Lopr.)