Very early on, he attended the laboratories of Alfred Giard and that of Alfred Blanchard. As early as 1912, at the age of 25, he established the notion of metacercaria, a stage of the lifecycle of Digenea. In 1914, he was on an oceanographic mission aboard the Research Vessel "Pourquoi Pas?" under the orders of Jean-Baptiste Charcot. During the Second World War, he was a stretcher bearer and auxiliary doctor.[1]
Between the wars, he occupied the very modest function of『préparateur』in a laboratory of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. However, he was able to carry out scientific expeditions in Morocco (1923-1928), the Red Sea (1928-1929) and in 1929-1930 in the Atlantic on the RV "Pourquoi Pas?". He then studied fish and crustaceans, but began to study parasites, under the supervision of famous French parasitologist Émile Brumpt.[1]
In 1941, he defended his thesis on TrypanorhynchaCestodes, published in 1942. He was elected President of the Zoological Society of France in 1940. He then became Director of a laboratory at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. After the Second World War, he became a confirmed and famous helminthologist and parasitologist, but never succeeded in obtaining a post of Professor at the National Museum of Natural History. In 1957, despite his retirement, he continued to work every day at the National Museum of Natural History, practically until his death in 1976. In 1962, he was elected President of the French Society of Parasitology.[1]
Every spring, Robert-Philippe Dollfus went to Morocco, where his daughter lived, to work at the Institut Scientifique Chérifien. He produced articles on helminths and a Catalog of Fishes from the Atlantic Coast of Morocco.[1]
Robert-Philippe Dollfus’s immense scientific collections are now in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.[1]
A number of taxa, generally parasites, were named in his honour.
Genera include the digeneanDollfustrema Eckmann, 1934,[5] the cestodeDollfusiella Campbell & Beveridge, 1994,[6] and the AcanthocephalaDollfusentis Golvan, 1969.[7]
Dollfus, R. P. (1942). Notes diverses sur les Tétrarhynques. Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 41p. (Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - Nouvelle Série (1935-1950); 22 (5)).
Dollfus R. P. 1946. Parasites (animaux et végétaux) des Helminthes. Hyperparasites, ennemis et prédateurs des Helminthes parasites et des Helminthes libres. Essai de compilation méthodique. Encyclopédie Biologique, volume XXVII. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, 483 pages.
Dollfus, R. P. F. (1953). Aperçu général sur l'histoire naturelle des parasites animaux de la morue Atlanto-Arctique, Gadus callarias L. (Morhua L.) (Vol. 43). Paul Lechevalier, Paris.
Dollfus, R. P. 1968. Les Trématodes de l’histoire naturelle des Helminthes de Félix Dujardin (1845). Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 77p. (Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sér. A – Zoologie (1950-1992); 54 (3)).
^Campbell, R. A.; Beveridge, I. (1994). Order Trypanorhyncha Diesing, 1863. In L.F. Khalil, A. Jones & R.A. Bray (eds.), Keys to the cestode parasites of vertebrates. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K.: 51-148.
^Golvan, Y.J. (1969). Systematique des Acanthocephales (Acanthocephala Rudolphi, 1801), L'ordre des Palaeacanthocephala Meyer, 1931, La superfamille des Echinorhynchidea (Cobbold, 1876) Golvan et Houin 1973. Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. 47:1-373.
^Durette-Desset, M.C. 1971. Essai de classification des nématodes héligmosomes. Correlations avec la paléobiogéographie des hôtes. Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (A)69:1–126.
