Did you know that the guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) was named after a British born naturist by the name of Robert Guppy who migrated to Trinidad?

​Did you know that the guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) was named after a British born naturist by the name of Robert Guppy who migrated to Trinidad?
Robert John Lechmere Guppy was born on 15th August, 1836 in London, England . In 1859 he came to Trinidad to join his parents and brother who had migrated to Trinidad some years before . Robert John Lechmere Guppy contributed much to the geology, palaeontology and zoology of the West Indian region, in particular Trinidad.
During one of his field surveys, he noticed a fish, which was called the “millions fish” at the time, but would later be named the “guppy’”. Intrigued by the small creature, he sent samples in 1866 to the curator of the British Museum, the legendary ichthyologist, Dr Albert Carl Ludwig Gotthilf Guenther.
Guppy was also the founder of the Victoria Institute (now renamed the National Museum) in Port-of-Spain at the time of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, and he served as the Institute’s president for years.
Angelo took the last photo in 2015 and was saddened by the state of neglect and disrepair of Robert Guppy's burial site in San Fernando , a man considered as one of the Icons of T&T. (Source: Patricia Bissessar, Aug 7, 2022)