Degree in Natural Sciences (1998). First PhD in Animal Ethology and Ecology (2003) on the olfactory behavior of social wasps (Supervisor Prof. Stefano Turillazzi). Postdoctoral fellow at the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa. Second PhD in microbial and agricultural biotechnology on the ecological link between wasps and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (2013). Lecturer in “Environmental Biology” at Oxford Brookes University. Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship on the diversity of European Lepidoptera at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva in Barcelona (2015).
During the academic and research path, he focused attention on social insects (wasps, bees, ants) with particular attention to chemical communication and immunity. Among the discoveries of greatest interest is the reversal of the fertility signalingl hypothesis in Polistes wasps, and the recognition of the role of wasps in maintaining and producing the diversity of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The current major interest is in the biogeography and conservation of biodiversity of Mediterranean Lepidoptera, which has led to the recognition of different species of European butterflies and in drawing the first zoogeographic map based on the variability of mitochondrial DNA which confirms the paradigms of post-glacial colonization in Europe.
Winner of the XIX Binaghi Prize.

Dapporto L, Dani FR, Turillazzi S 2007. Social dominance molds cuticular and egg chemical blends in a paper wasp. Curr Biol 17:r504-r505.
Stefanini I, Dapporto L, Legras J-L, Calabretta A, Di Paola M, De Filippo C, Viola R, Capretti P, Polsinelli P, Turillazzi S, Cavalieri D 2012. Role of social wasps in Saccharomyces cerevisiae ecology and evolution. Proc Natl Acad USA 109:13398-13403.
Dapporto L, Fattorini S, Vodă R, Dincă V, Vila R 2014. Biogeography of western Mediterranean butterflies: combining turnover and nestedness components of faunal dissimilarity. J Biogeogr 41:1639-1650.
Dapporto, L., Cini, A., Menchetti, M., Vodă, R., Bonelli, S., Casacci, L.P., Dincă, V., Scalercio, S., Hinojosa, J.C., Biermann, H. and Forbicioni, L., 2017. Rise and fall of island butterfly diversity: Understanding genetic differentiation and extinction in a highly diverse archipelago. Divers Distrib, 23:1169-1181.
Dapporto, L., Cini, A., Vodă, R., Dincă, V., Wiemers, M., Menchetti, M., Magini, G., Talavera, G., Shreeve, TG., Bonelli, S., Casacci, L. P., Balletto, E., Scalercio, S., Vila, R (2019). Integrating three comprehensive data sets shows that mitochondrial DNA variation is linked to species traits and paleogeographic events in European butterflies. Mol Ecol Res, 19:1623–1636.