Collecting and protection

For a very long time Man has gathered and captured, for collections or for study, specimens of everything within the vast field of the natural sciences: from fossils to minerals, from plants to shells, and finally to insects. It was after the publication, about two centuries ago, of the “Systema Naturae” by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, in which he laid for the first time the foundations of what was to become modern systematics, that people began to collect specimens of fauna and flora following, for the first time, a scientific and rational criterion. Many travellers and explorers in past centuries brought back interesting study material from their expeditions: among them we may mention Bottego, who during his journeys collected a great many specimens, part of which are kept in the Museo “Andrea Doria” in Genoa.

It was with the spread of colonialism, especially in the last century, that knowledge of exotic fauna increased considerably. It was in fact the custom of many officers and minor gentry of the occupying countries to spend their free time collecting insects and then classifying them; most of these collections have survived to the present day, thus constituting an indispensable source of material for study and comparison.