Corresponding author: Filippo Maria Maria Buzzetti (
Academic editor: Edward Baker
Historical natural history collections are very important for the study of nature and environmental protection of the environment, these being the depository of essential information. The Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto holds two major Orthopteroid insect collections that make this Museum a landmark on Italian and Mediterranean
Databasing of the Galvagni Collection makes possible considerations on the late specialist research, geographic and taxonomic coverage.
The Fondazione Museo Civico of Rovereto (FMCR) is an Italian civic museum founded in 1851. The Museum contains many collections ranging from natural sciences and archaeology to art, but the entomological, botanical and archaeological collections are of greater relevance. In fact, these count more than 286,980 exhibits and are the data source of many scientific publications. The first collections date back to the years of the Museum foundation, but unfortunately, part of these were lost during World War I. The collections of the FMCR have grown during nearly 200 years of the foundation , so that the number of collections and exhibits, curated in the Museum, is continuously increasing. Currently, at the FMCR, there are four entomological collections of both national and international relevance given the presence of many types: the Bernardino Halbherr Collection is composed mainly of
The work carried out on the Galvagni Collection took three years of work (2016 - 2019) between reorganisation, restoration of some boxes and digital databasing. The collection as it entered the Museum was in a good state, even after some years of no maintenance by the owner. Nevertheless, to avoid any sort of possible infestation, it was subjected to freezing treatment using large refrigerators present in the Museum. Afterwards, the entomological boxes in the FMCR deposit began to be arranged, cleaned and restored. Finally the systematic collection, that part of the Galvagni Collection identified and arranged according to current taxonomy, was digitally databased in the Museum catalogue. This consists of 219 boxes and is available on the website
The Antonio Galvagni Collection is made up mostly (85%) of Italian specimens, plus others (15%) from the Mediterranean Basin and beyond. With this work, we want to underline the investigation carried out in the Italian regions. As shown in Table
Concerning the altitudinal distribution of
2) in general, the number of specimens collected is lower on the valley floor or in coastal areas, as these areas are often highly anthropogenised, therefore lacking suitable habitats.
and Latitude; and Longitude.
The 32,046 specimens of the Galvagni Collection consist of 138
Although Antonio Galvagni collected all the orthopteroid groups, his studies concentrated on some genera and this is mostly evident by the fact that many specimens of target taxa are dissected and their genitalia prepared for a deeper study. Some examples of the most studied genera are: amongst
In addition to these numbers, we also report a list of all those taxa described by Antonio Galvagni that are still valid for science (
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Antonio Galvagni began to capture specimens intensively from 1940 and continued until he lost the strength to collect; his collection covers more than 60 years of Italian natural history. From the trend of the graph in Fig.
Even if there are peaks of collecting activity, during his whole life, Galvagni collected an average of 400 specimens every year.
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Databasing of Antonio Galvagni Collection (
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collezione Galvagni
The Galvagni Collection database can be downloaded as supplementary material (Suppl. material
Column label | Column description |
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Section | Museum section to which the material is related |
Sub-section | Museum Sub-section to which the material is related |
Number of specimens | How many specimens are databased |
Object name | Name of the species |
Continent | Continent from which the specimen comes |
Country | Country from which the specimen comes |
Region | Region from which the specimen comes |
Province | Province from which the specimen comes |
City | City from which the specimen comes |
Locality | Locality from which the specimen comes |
Location | Institution where the specimen is preserved |
Collection | Collection of the museum where the specimen is preserved |
Specific Position | Number of the entomological box where the specimen is preserved |
Board | Inventory paper board, when available |
Phylum | Phylum to which the specimens belong |
Class | Class to which the specimens belong |
Order | Order to which the specimens belong |
Family | Family to which the specimens belong |
Genus | Genus to which the specimens belong |
Species | Species to which the specimens belong |
Species Author | Author of the species |
Subspecies | Subspecies to which the specimens belong |
Subspecies Author | Author of the subspecies |
Number of males | Number of male specimens |
Stage of males | Stage of development of the preserved specimens |
Number of females | Number of female specimens |
Stage of females | Stage of development of the preserved specimens |
Mounting Method | Procedure used to prepare the specimens |
Conservation status | Conditions of the specimens (good, bad, broken etc.) |
Lowest altitude | Lowest altitude of the collecting locality |
highest altitude | Highest altitude of the collecting locality |
Collecting date 1 | First date of period in which the specimens have been collected |
Collecting date 2 | Last date of period in which the specimens have been collected |
Collector | Who collected the specimens |
Reviewer | Who reviewed the data entry |
Revision date | Date in which the revision was made |
Notes | Additional info about identification, type material etc. |
Natural History Museums collections are important for homeland security, public health and safety, monitoring of environmental change, taxonomy and systematics (
The Italian Natural History Museums are in a difficult situation due to many factors (
We thank here Christine Rothwell B.A.Dip.Ed. and Lucio Sirca B.A. (Melbourne, Australia) for proofreading the text, Eleonora Zen (Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto, Italy) for helping in data analysis, Edward Baker (Natural History Museum, London, UK) for improving the English text.
Database of FMCR available on
Number of samples collected on the Italian territory.
Number of species divided by Regions.
Number of samples collected at different altitudes.
Number of specimens captured during the principal years of sampling.
Total of specimens, types and holotypes conserved in the Galvani’s systematic collection.
Orders | Number of specimens | Types | Holotypes |
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138 | 1 | 1 |
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4434 | 32 | 3 |
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25014 | 320 | 33 |
|
2450 | 29 | 3 |
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10 | 0 | 0 |
Collezione Galvagni
Geographic distribution, number of specimens, sex, collecting date, notes
File: oo_519306.txt