In 1896, ornithologist Tommaso Salvadori named Ruspoli's turaco after him. This bird had been collected by Ruspoli in 1892 or 1893, but the precise location and date of its collection are unknown due to Ruspoli's untimely death and failure to leave notes. Along with his traveling companion, Domenico Riva, Ruspoli also discovered the orchid "Aerangis somalensis". Many years later, his nephew Marescotti Ruspoli (who died at El Alamein in 1942) found Ruspoli's tomb in Somalia and brought back his remains, which were buried in May 1928 in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome.