Born 12 April 1950; Firenze, Italy.
Professor Emeritus of Zoology, Università di Firenze.
Scientific interests:
1) Mechanisms and evolution of sociality and social parasitism in insects, 2) Chemical communication in social insects, 3) function and characteristics of venom of social Hymenoptera; 4) Natural history, evolution and social biology of tropical wasps., 5) Morphology and ultrastructure of exocrine glands in Social Insects, 6) Mating systems and nest architecture of Social Wasps; 7) Symbiotic relations between social wasps and microrganisms; 8) Entomophagy and Entomotherapy.

Author of more than 200 publications on social insects in International Journals.
Honours: Member of the Accademia Nazionale Italiana di Entomologia since 2000; Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei since 2002.

Turillazzi S. (2012). The Biology of Hover Wasps. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer, ISBN:9783642326790

Stefanini, I.; Dapporto, L.; Legras, J. -. L.; Calabretta, A.; Di Paola, M.; De Filippo, C.; Viola, R. .; Capretti, P.; Polsinelli, M.; Turillazzi, S.; Cavalieri, D. (2012). Role of social wasps in Saccharomyces cerevisiae ecology and evolution. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, vol. 109 (33), pp. 13398-13403, ISSN:1091-6490

Turillazzi S; Mastrobuoni G; Dani FR; Moneti G; Pieraccini G; la Marca G; Bartolucci G; Perito B; Lambardi D; Cavallini V; Dapporto L. (2006). Dominulin A and B: two new antibacterial peptides identified on the cuticle and in the venom of the social paper wasp Polistes dominulus using MALDI-TOF, MALDI-TOF/TOF, and ESI-ion trap.. Journal of the american society for mass spectrometry, vol. Mar;17(3), pp. 376-383, ISSN:1044-0305

Turillazzi S; Dapporto L; Pansolli C; Boulay R; Dani F.R; Pieraccini G; G. Moneti (2006). Habitually used hibernation sites of paper wasps are marked with venom and cuticular peptides. Current Biology, vol. 16, pp. R530-R531, ISSN:0960-9822

Turillazzi S.; M.J. West-Eberhard (Eds) (1996). Natural History and evolution of paper wasps. OXFORD: Oxford University Press.