Enrico Adelelmo Brunetti (22 May 1862 – 21 January 1927) was a British

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

. He specialized in the

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

and worked for many years in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Brunetti was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. His mother was from

Bath, Somerset Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...

shire and his father, of Italian origin came from Fossombrone, Rome, was a confectioner and importer of wines who ran a restaurant in

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

. From a young age, Brunetti showed interest in music composition and was trained by Giacomo Ferrari and Enrico Mattei. A musician by profession, Brunetti was a composer for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. He played piano at the Empire, Islington around 1901 and in bands at

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

and

Llandrindod Wells Llandrindod Wells (; ; ; ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales. It serves as the seat of Powys County Council, and is therefore the administrative centre of Powys. The town was Historic counties of Wales, historically in ...

around 1902 and was a bandmaster in 1903 at Harwich. He went to India as a musical conductor for Tivoli Theatre in Calcutta and for sometime worked with Bandman Opera Company travelling to Singapore and Java. He spent his free time studying entomology, especially

. In 1904 he made a musical tour of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

making extensive insect collections on his travels. He later settled in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

where he stayed for 17 years. He played piano at the Globe Opera House, Great Eastern and Grand Hotels in Calcutta. He had strict rules and refused to play on Sundays or after the playing of "God Save the King." Aside from music, he took an interest in stamp collecting. He hated the noise of Calcutta and especially detested the cawing of crows, taking out his collector's gun to shoot crows every evening and morning. He spent his summers in Darjeeling and wrote many papers in the Records of the Indian Museum. Brunetti briefly worked as an Assistant Superintendent in charge at the

Indian Museum Indian Museum (formerly called Imperial Museum of Calcutta) is a grand museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is the ninth oldest museum in the world and the oldest, as well as the largest museum in Asia, by size of collection. It ...

working on honoraria ranging from 30 to 300 GBP a year. At the suggestion of

Thomas Nelson Annandale Thomas Nelson Annandale CIE FRSE (15 June 1876, in Edinburgh – 10 April 1924, in Calcutta) was a British zoologist, entomologist, anthropologist, and herpetologist. He was the founding director of the Zoological Survey of India. Life The eld ...

he was sanctioned leave to go to England to revise his manuscript on Indian Diptera using the material at the British Museum. For this task the Government of India approved 300 GBP for the period of a year. He described species without dissection of the genitalia and had little interest in the biology of living insects. In 1921 he returned to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, spending his summers in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where The Imperial Bureau of Entomology employed him to identify specimens. Winters were spent in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. He worked for long periods on British Diptera. He fell ill during a winter in Paris in 1926-27 and died in a hospital in London. Before his death, Brunetti gave his collection of 80,000 specimens, and his library to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

. This museum also his manuscripts:- 56 letters and two bound manuscript volumes regarding

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

n Diptera. The Psychodid genus ''Brunettia'' was named by Annandale in Brunetti's honour in 1910.

Works

This is a partial list. For a complete list see Smart (1945): * Revision of the Oriental Tipulidae with descriptions of new species. ''Rec. Indian Mus.'' 6: 231-314 (1911). * New Oriental Nemocera. ''Rec. Indian Mus''. 4: 259-316 (1911). * Annotated catalog of Oriental Culicidae-supplement. ''Rec. Indian Mus.'' 4: 403-517 (1912). * Critical review of "genera" in Culicidae. Rec. Indian Mus. 10: 15-73 (1914). * Revision of the Oriental

Tipulidae Tipulidae is a family of large Crane fly, crane flies in the order Diptera. There are more than 30 genera and 4,200 described species in Tipulidae, common and widespread throughout the world. A crane fly can be identified as a member of Tipuli ...

with descriptions of new species. Part II. ''Rec. Indian Mus.'' 15: 255-340 (1918). * Catalogue of Oriental and South Asiatic Nemocera. ''Rec. Indian Mus.'' 17: 1-300 Brunetti, E. (1920). * New Oriental Diptera, I. ''Rec. Indian Mus.'' 7: 445-513 (1912). * New and little-known Cyrtidae (Diptera). ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist''. (9)18(107): 561-606 . (1926). He was also the main contributor to ''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books t ...

''. writing the parts. * Diptera 1. Brachycera (1920) - 401 p - 4 pl * Diptera 2. Nematocera (1912) - xxviii + 581 p - 12 pl * Diptera 3.

Pipunculidae Pipunculidae is a family of flies (Diptera) commonly termed big-headed flies, a reference to the large ( holoptic) eyes, which cover nearly the entire head. The family is found worldwide and more than 1300 species have been described. The larva ...

, Syrphidae,

Conopidae The Conopidae, also known as the thick-headed flies, are a family of fly, flies within the Brachycera suborder of Diptera, and the sole member of the superfamily Conopoidea. Flies of the family Conopidae are distributed worldwide in all the bio ...

Oestridae Botflies, also known as warble flies, heel flies, and gadflies, are flies of the family Oestridae. Their larvae are internal parasites of mammals, some species growing in the host's flesh and others within the gut. ''Dermatobia hominis'' is t ...

(1923) 424 p - 83 fig - 5 pl .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunetti, Enrico 1862 births 1927 deaths English composers Entomologists from London Dipterists Naturalists from British India English people of Italian descent British people in colonial India