FILIPPO SILVESTRI Entomological Museum

The Filippo Silvestri entomological museum is annexed to the formerly Department of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology. It collects insects and other zoological material established as early as 1876 under the action of distinguished scholars such as Achille Costa (1823-1898), Antonio Berlese (1863-1927) and especially Filippo Silvestri (1873-1949). A great naturalist explorer, a professional agricultural entomologist, Silvestri personally collected thousands of species during his numerous and sometimes adventurous scientific journeys. Moreover, for almost fifty years he received scientific material for study, above all Insects and Miriapods, from specialists from all over the world. Helped by his many students and technicians, he gave great impulse to the collection of fowl insects on plants of agricultural importance together with the complex of their natural enemies, as well as on the spontaneous Mediterranean flora. Gradually the different collections have been rearranged into four rooms that, at present, form the museum space. The prestigious collections that the Silvestri Museum houses are essentially the entomological ones, of considerable scientific value, to which scholars from all over the world have access, with requests for loans of original or typical specimens (i.e. those on which new entities are described, families, orders, etc.) or with agreed on-the-spot study stays. These collections, due to their scientific importance and the obvious reasons for their preservation, are not exposed to the public. The most representative collections to highlight are those reserved for the Onychophores, Crustaceans, Arachnids, Miriapods and Mites and Insects (Proturi, Tisanuri, Dipluri, Isoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera). This collection according to JR Demange of the Paris Museum is important as well as for its specificity also because, after the destruction of the Dresden Museum during the terrible bombardment, there are no similar in the world. Also the Termites are well represented with around 900 species coming from all over the world and enclosed in 300 glass jars. In recent years, in relation to an activity more open to the didactic aspect, new collections have been set up on current topics of undoubted interest for the visitor. To highlight the collection of Hymenoptera Apoidei revised by Prof. Priore, the collection of entomophagous Hymenoptera, with many specimens preserved dry and microscopic slides, cured by proff. G. Viggiani and E. Tremblay and the Formicoidei collection with about 200 boxes with specimens from all over the world. Other animal groups are kept in small and significant zoological collections among which the ornithological collection stands out.

Location: Second floor of the Royal Palace

Tel. 081 2539192 Fax 081 7755145

e-mail: entozoo@unina.it

Director Prof. Antonio Pietro Garonna

e-mail: garonna@unina.it