Guido Poppe

Guido T. Poppe (born 11 September 1954) is a Belgian malacologist, shell dealer, and author of more than 60 books and publications about shells, mainly about the families Volutidae and Trochidae.

Biography The son of a sports fisherman, Poppe became fascinated in childhood by marine life during yearly holidays in Brittany, France. His first diving experiences were in these waters in 1968.

He developed a career as a professional freelance conchologist. This allowed him to dive in many parts of the world, in European waters and in many tropical seas from Baja California to Queensland, Australia. In 2003 he moved from Belgium to the Philippines. Most of his dives are now concentrated in the Philippines. After more than 6,000 dives, he has compiled a collection of photographs of seashells and marine life.

He was the vice-president of the Société Belge de Malacologie (Belgian Malacological Society) for eight years.

Scientific work Poppe discovered more than 1000 new species of Mollusca and described more than 500 of these, mainly in the families Volutidae, Trochidae, and Colloniidae as well as the Philippine malacofauna. The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has listed 668 marine species named by Poppe (alone or together with others such as Sheila Tagaro, Henk Dekker, Yoshihiro Goto or Salisbury) in its database. More than 40 species have been named after him by scientists from all over the world either with the epithet poppei, guidopoppei or guidoi.

In July 2004, together with his son, Philippe, he created the journal Visaya, specialising in the taxonomy of Mollusca.

He named three species after his son: the calliostoma topsnail Calliostoma philippei (Poppe, 2004); another sea snail, Calliotropis philippei (Poppe, Tagaro & Dekker, 2006); and Bayerotrochus philpoppei (Anseeuw, Poppe & Goto, 2006). He named the topsnail Calliostoma mariae after his mother, Maria Peyskens.