>Skip to content. Search.

History of the Entomological Collections

Hans Silfverberg

The insect collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History include at present some 9 million specimens. Lepidoptera and Coleoptera comprise the largest numbers, but there is also much of Hymenoptera and Diptera, and smaller numbers of the other orders. Slightly less than half of the material has been collected in Finland, the rest is from abroad. These collections have been brought together during more than two hundred years.

Contents

The Åbo period

The oldest portion of the collection was collected in the 18 th century. At that time Finland was part of Sweden, and the centre for science was in Uppsala. Carl Linnaeus, after 1761 Carl von Linné, was professor at the university there. Yet there were also zoologists at the University of Åbo (= Turku), and some of them collected insects. Isaac Uddman (1733-1781) should be mentioned as the first; he studied among other things the insect fauna near Åbo. The museum has a few insects that Uddman collected and Linnaeus named, specimens that accordingly are Linnaean types. During the period 1780-1816 Carl Niclas Hellenius (1745-1820) was professor of natural history; during his time the University’s insect collections did not grow much, but at his retirement Hellenius donated his own collection to the university. Another important Finnish entomologist at the period was Gabriel Bonsdorff (1762-1831); he gave his collection to the university in 1819. There was also the botanical demonstrator Lars Johan Prytz (1789-1823), who had collected a considerable number of insects; he similarly gave his collection to the university in 1819.

The war between Sweden and Russia in 1808-09 resulted in the transfer of Finland from Sweden to Russia. However, Finland was given the status of an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire, and the old institutions could continue their activities. The university was one of these institutions. Yet soon both naturalists as well as other members of the educated class began to see as their purpose a study of particularly Finnish matters. Carl Reinhold Sahlberg (1779-1860), who became Hellenius’s successor as professor, was a strong proponent of this idea. He was himself a keen insect collector, who arranged many excursions for his students in southwestern Finland, and additionally he sent some of his students to longer expeditions to the inner parts of Finland, and to Lapland. In 1821 the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica was founded, with its first purpose to produce a collection of Finnish animals and plants; Sahlberg was elected its first chairman. The society initiated collecting activities in many parts of Finland, so that much material was sent from the north for instance by the vicar of Muonio, Mathias Kolström (1763-1829), and the vicar of Utsjoki, Jacob Fellman (1795-1875), both of them fellows of the society. Yet activities were not limited to Finland, Sahlberg exchanged much material with foreign colleagues, in 1821 the Ziegler collection was bought from Vienna, and in 1824 Carl Tams (1803-1836) and Adolf Dammert (1800-1858) received a travel grant for an expedition to the Crimea and the Caucasus, from which journey they returned in 1826 with a large number of animals and plants.

Thus the collections were growing in a satisfactory manner when the great fire of Åbo destroyed most of the town during 4-5 th September 1827. Some students managed to save Sahlberg’s private collection, and parts of other collections, but most of the collections were consumed by the fire.

The Imperial Alexander University

Already in 1812 Helsingfors (= Helsinki) had been made capital of Finland. After the fire had destroyed most of the university, it was decided that the university should be moved to Helsingfors, too. Its re-establishment was given high priority, and already in the following year it could open, now under the name of the Imperial Alexander University, as it would be known until 1917.

Once the shock had been overcome, the naturalists were ready to rebuild what had been lost. The university bought the Sahlberg collection in 1828. Then four students made a journey to Lapland in 1830, and in 1831 the university bought a collection that had belonged to the originally Finnish physician Johannes Henning, who had died in St. Petersburg; the Henning collection contained primarily Russian insects, largely from Siberia, among them also some of Faldermann’s and Fischer v.Waldheim’s types. Many members of Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica collected new insect materials, and the society received the collections of A.L. Ahlstedt and A. Caloander. Only ten years afterwards it was said that the collection only rarely received new Finnish species – a premature complaint, as time would show.

Faunistics demands knowledge of the distribution of species. Because of this the Society supported collecting trips to various parts of Finland and adjacent areas. From 1838 onwards many such journeys enriched the Society’s collections (Table 1). During the first decades the Society and the university had formally separate collections, although the Society’s collections were kept in university buildings, too, but in 1858 the Society donated its collections to the university; according to the donation documents they contained at that time 3 052 species and 8 396 specimens. Afterwards all accessions came to the university collections, and since the 1870s the accessions have been listed yearly in the publications Meddelanden af Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica and Memoranda Societatis pro Fauna et Flora Fennica.

The Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica concentrated on Finnish species. At the same time many scientists and students of the university made expeditions far away, mostly within the Russian Empire. In the 1840s and 1850s many Finns were active in Alaska; insects were collected there mainly by Reinhold Ferdinand Sahlberg (1811-1874), Henrik Johan Holmberg (1818-1864), Fredrik Frankenhaeuser (1820-1887), Uno Cygnaeus (1810-1888) and Alexander Collan (1823-1882). Some of them collected in Siberia as well. Several other entomologists travelled in Siberia and Central Asia (Table 2). Both the Alaskan and the Siberian materials yielded numerous species new to science, and their types are accordingly in the Helsingfors collection. R.F. Sahlberg also made a visit to southern Brazil in 1849-51, but only part of that material ended up in Helsingfors. Johan Martin Jacob af Tengström (1821-1890) visited Java in 1849, and from the Lepidoptera he brought from this journey, several new species were described. Some shorter trips within Europe also added to the collections.

Originally the collections were mainly seen as an aid in identifying species, and it was considered important to have as many species as possible. Additional specimens of the same species were mostly considered exchange material, especially if they were from the same locality. Later the importance of larger materials was understood, but still at the end of the 19 th century only a few specimens were kept in the main collection, the rest were so-called doubles. We can also find many references in old records to slightly damaged specimens being discarded in favour of new ones.

C.R. Sahlberg, who remained as professor until 1839, was mainly a coleopterologist. Later on other orders got their specialists. In the middle of the 19 th century Finnish Lepidoptera were investigated by J.M.J. af Tengström, Hymenoptera by William Nylander (1822-1899), Diptera by Evert Julius Bonsdorff (1810-1896) and Odonata by Edvard Hisinger (1832-1904). Their collecting activities, excursions arranged by Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica, and materials collected by zoology students continuously added to the university’s collections.

Personal conflicts within the university made E.J. Bonsdorff start a separate anatomical museum, where he also kept his Diptera collection. Bonsdorff later donated the museum to the university, but it remained at the Anatomy Department. When Bonsdorff retired in 1871, his Diptera were moved to the same place where the other insects were kept.

The Mannerheim collection

Count Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (1797-1854) was one of the leading statesmen of the grand duchy of Finland. During his career he held, among other posts, those of governor and president of the Viborg court of appeals. In addition to this, he was also one of the foremost entomologists of his time, and described hundreds of new Coleopteran species from various parts of the world (very many from Alaska). His collection included finally nearly 100.000 specimens. He himself had only collected a minor portion of them, mostly from southern Finland, but also from some neighboring areas, e.g. St. Petersburg. The main portion had been collected by others; in Finland we find among the collectors the previously mentioned vicars Kolström and Fellman, furthermore the bailiff of Sordavala Johan Hallonblad, the eastern Finnish rural police chiefs Carl Johan Gråstén and Carl Fredrik Lindberg, and many others. Some Finns collected insects for Mannerheim during their activities in Russia, e.g. Emil Stjernvall on the Caucasian front during the war against Turkey in 1828-29, Johan Wilhelm Hollberg, serving in the army in Daghestan, Christian Steven, inspector of sericulture, in southern Russia, and the governor of Alaska Adolf Etholén both in Alaska and in Siberia.

A large part of Mannerheim’s collection had been obtained through exchange. Among the exchange partners we find many of the leading entomologists of that time. Because some of the material thus acquired had been used for their descriptions of new species, the Mannerheim collection includes besides his own types also much syntypic material of such entomologists as Eschscholtz, Faldermann, Ménétriés, Dejean, Wiedemann, Chevrolat and Gebler.

Mannerheim also bought large amounts of insects from the leading insect traders of his time. Among them we find J.B.L. Buquet ( Paris), J. de Cristofori ( Milan), H. Cuming ( London), C. Drege ( Hamburg), L. Parreys ( Vienna) and J. Sturm (Nürnberg).

After Mannerheim’s death in 1854 his collection was bought to the university. It is still kept separate, and a large number of coleopterists from various parts of the world have used it for their studies.

A new generation on the move

During the period 1867-1883 Fredrik Wilhelm Mäklin (1821-1883) was professor of zoology. A coleopterist, who had begun his career as an assistant to Mannerheim, he collected insects in many parts of Finland, and also acquired much material from abroad for his own studies, particularly of Heteromera. He could not, however, inspire his students, and he did not consider the gathering of large materials scientifically relevant. He is said to have asked what would happen if the museum were to have one bear from every parish. But during the 1860s the zoological institution received a number of new students, who were to bring new energy and new ideas into Finnish entomology.

Johan Axel Palmén (1845-1919), who in 1884 became Mäklin’s successor as professor, collected during his early years numerous insects in various parts of Finland. Although he later concentrated on other animals, especially birds, he still added large numbers to the insect collections e.g. during the expedition to the Kola Peninsula, which was arranged in 1887. He established biological field stations, first in Esbo Lövö, then in Tvärminne, and they became important centres for entomological research. During the same period, Fredrik Wilhelm Woldstedt (1847-1888) and Carl Lundström (1844-1914) also began their studies; the former was the first one to investigate the Finnish Ichneumonidae, the latter, although a physician by profession, studied the Finnish Diptera. Odo Morannal Reuter (1850-1913) was also an important entomologist; he worked on several previously neglected groups, such as Homoptera, Thysanoptera, Neuroptera and Collembola. His brother Enzio Reuter (1867-1951) studied Lepidoptera in his early years, particularly in south-western Finland.

The man who did the most for Finnish entomology, and particularly for the insect collections during the end of the 19 th century was John Sahlberg (1845-1920). He collected much more insects than anybody else, and he described hundreds of new species. He made expeditions to various parts of Finland, to Russian Karelia, Siberia, the Mediterranean area, and to Central Asia. Furthermore, during his work as assistant professor at the museum he united the many previously separate collections, thus facilitating their use.

John Sahlberg was also an inspiring teacher, who attracted many students. The most international acclaim would later be given to Bertil Poppius (1876-1916), Walter Mikael Axelson (later Linnaniemi) (1876-1953) and Antti Silfvenius (later Siltala) (1878-1910); Poppius specialized in Coleoptera, Axelson in Collembola and Silfvenius in Trichoptera. They collected large numbers of insects for their studies, and gave material to the museum. Many others also received guidance from Sahlberg, and many of them collected insects at least while university students, in some cases afterwards, too. We should at least mention Aulis Westerlund (1870-1898), who mainly collected Hymenoptera, Johan Emil Aro (1874-1928), who studied Ephemeroptera, and Karl Emil Stenroos (later Kivirikko) (1879-1947). Many of Sahlberg’s students made collecting trips within Finland, with some going even further, for instance to Siberia and Central Asia (Table 2).

During his own expeditions Sahlberg met the Finnish railway engineer Constantin Ahnger (1855-1942). Ahnger was employed by Russia and later by the Soviet Union, mainly in Turkmenia and in southern Russia. An amateur entomologist, he began to send material to the Helsingfors University, too. He did so for many years, and having returned to Finland in the 1930s he still continued collecting insects for the museum.

In 1908 the museum received as a donation the insect collection of G.A. Duske, who had worked in St. Petersburg. Duske’s collection contained a large number of Lepidoptera, some from southern Russia (area of the Volga and Ural rivers), some collected during the Siberian expeditions of the Grand Duke Nicolai Michailovich; there were also for instance large numbers of Coleoptera.

Among the world famous Finnish entomologists at the turn of the century we must also mention Ernst Evald Bergroth (1857-1925). He was a physician by profession, and studied Heteroptera on the side. His entomological work covered the entire world. He did not make many collecting trips himself, but he studied material collected by others, and described large numbers of new species. As he was allowed to keep doubles, his collection soon reached respectable dimensions, and after his death it came to the museum.

Independent Finland

Finland won its independence in 1917. For entomology the following years were characterized by a concentration on domestic matters. Partly this was due to a general national feeling, then again many of the areas, from Russian Karelia all the way to Siberia, where earlier generations had excelled, were now out of reach. Moreover, several of the entomologists, who had done most of the work with foreign insects, died around these years – Poppius in 1916, J. Sahlberg in 1920 and Bergroth in 1925. Additionally, entomology began to divide into subdisciplines, with many entomologists specializing in applied science, others in genetics or in physiology.

The university had kept its insect collections in its main building during the 19 th century. The Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica had had a place in the botanical institution for its collections. When the botanical institution received in 1902 a new main building, all the insect collections could be kept there for a while. But only when the former Alexander Gymnasium was acquired for the zoological institution and the zoological museum, was the problem of space solved for a longer time. In November 1923 the collections were moved into this building, where they still reside.

Since 1919 the Division of Entomology has functioned as a separate unit within the zoological museum. During 1919-1955 it was headed by Richard Frey (1886-1965). Frey was a dipterologist, and unlike most of his contemporaries, he studied exotic insects as well as Finnish ones. He made many collecting trips to various parts of Finland, but also abroad, and he started the project of studying the Atlantic islands, which some other Finnish entomologists continued. Besides materials that he collected himself, he also acquired much for his own collection by exchange or purchase; he bought for instance the Böttcher collection, with many Philippine Diptera. He described many new species, often with the types in his collection. After Frey had retired, the university bought his collection.

Other scientists who worked for a long time at the Division of Entomology were Håkan Lindberg (1898-1966), Wolter Hellén (1890-1979) and Adolf Nordman (1900-1976). They collected large numbers of insects all over Finland, Lindberg mainly Coleoptera and Hemiptera, Hellén primarily Coleoptera and Hymenoptera, and Nordman mostly Lepidoptera. Lindberg also made some long expeditions abroad, e.g. in 1926 he collected insects in Spain and Morocco together with his father Harald Lindberg.

Entomologists were not restricted to the museum. Many scientists working in the Department of Zoology or the Department of Genetics concentrated wholly or in part on insects, and with time their material came to the museum as well. Such scientists included Alexander Luther (1877-1970), Harry Federley (1879-1951), Holger Klingstedt (1900-1947), Pontus Palmgren (1907-1993), Esko Suomalainen (1910-1995) and Ernst Palmén (1919-1991). Many graduate students also worked with insects. Some of them continued later as amateur entomologists, others left the insects completely, but even so their materials often came to the museum. On the other hand, several institutions for applied entomology started their own collections, and materials studied within those institutions usually remained there at that time.

One special project was started in 1941. During the Second World War Finland occupied parts of Russian Karelia, and the Ministry of Education appointed a committee with the task of organizing research in these areas. Many entomologists participated in the project during 1942-1944. Lauri Tiensuu (1906-1980), a dipterologist, worked as an assistant at the Kentjärvi (Konchozero) biological station, Wolter Hellén, Jarl Carpelan (1897-1954) and Erik Thuneberg (1897-1981) made collecting trips, and many entomologists in the armed service collected insects, sometimes right at the front line. Among those we might mention Stephan Platonoff (1917-1944), Ernst Palmén, Eero Lankiala (1897-1958) and Viljo Karvonen (1901-1989), who were active at the river Svir. Their rich material of primarily Coleoptera and Lepidoptera are now wholly or in part in the zoological museum.

Finnish entomology owes much to amateurs. Professional entomologists are few, but the collecting of insects and the study of their biology interest hundreds if not thousands of people. Many amateurs have once studied biology; numerous teachers, foresters and physicians are examples, but amateur entomologists can be found in all professions. Most amateur entomologists concentrate on collecting Finnish insects, but as a result of this, the distribution of Lepidoptera, and to a large degree also Coleoptera is exceptionally well known in Finland. A few amateurs have also collected abroad; special mention should be made of Harald Lindberg (1871-1963), whose collection of Coleoptera eventually included hundreds of thousands of specimens from various parts of Europe and North Africa.

In the 19 th century entomologists were active in the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica along with other zoologists and botanists. During the 20 th century several specialized societies have been established. The first one was the Insect Exchange Society, established in 1913 to facilitate the exchange of insects between collectors. During its existence the Exchange Society has made large donations to the museum collections. The first scientific entomological society was Societas Entomologica Helsingforsiensis, established in 1919. Later came the Finnish Entomological Society (in 1935) and the Finnish Lepidopterists’ Society (in 1955). In these societies professional entomologists and amateurs meet freely, and thus the numerous amateurs can take their place in entomological research.

Many amateurs have brought together large insect collections over several decades. Numerous such collections have sooner or later found their way to the zoological museum, often as gifts or legacies. Occasionally the museum has bought some collection of particular value. Table 3 lists the most important separate collections acquired by the museum. Many amateurs have also made donations to the museum year after year; Table 4 lists the most frequent such donators who were not listed in Table 3.

At home and abroad

The Second World War did not result in a break in Finnish entomology. The museum collections had been evacuated because of bombings, but were soon restored to the museum. However, in time a more international outlook began to win ground. The zoological museum continued to investigate the Atlantic Islands, as initiated by Frey; Håkan Lindberg was particularly active in this. Many others of the museum staff also did some collecting abroad. The growth of the insect collections has made more demands on the museum staff, and sometimes even additional staff could be employed. During 1957-1981 the Division of Entomology was headed by Walter Hackman, other scientists during these years included Paavo Kontkanen, Pekka Nuorteva, Jouko Kaisila, Bernhard Lindeberg and Antti Jansson. In 1982 Martin Meinander became head of the Division, in 1991 he was succeeded by Olof Biström.

During the years 1962-1964 some Finnish entomologists visited Sudan, beginning a study of tropical Africa in which Rauno Linnavuori in particular, but also others have collected large insect materials to the museum collections (cf. Table 2). Many specialists have already described new species from this material. Later, Linnavuori collected insects in the Near East, particularly Iran.

Since 1982 a project led by Kauri Mikkola has studied Siberian insects, and later also North American ones; during this project large numbers of Lepidoptera, especially, have been collected, but also material from other orders. Others of the museum staff who participated in the expeditions were Hans Silfverberg, Antti Pekkarinen, Heikki Hippa, Gunilla Ståhls, Jukka Jalava, Pekka Vilkamaa, Larry Huldén, Lauri Kaila and Jaakko Kullberg.

The museum has also arranged collecting expeditions to distant countries. In 1996 Anders Albrecht, Olof Biström, Kauri Mikkola and Anders Wiklund collected insects in Nepal, and later that year Olof Biström, Marko Nieminen, Juhani Terhivuo and Pekka Vilkamaa made a collecting expedition to the Usambara Montains in Tanzania. In 2005 and 2006 collecting expeditions were made to the Greek Island Lesbos; participants in these expeditions include Olof Biström, Ville Heimala, Lauri Kaila, Elvira Rättel, Hans Silfverberg, Gunilla Ståhls-Mäkelä, Juhani Terhivuo and Pekka Vilkamaa.

The museum staff has collected on their own large materials from Finland and adjacent areas. Additionally there have been some larger projects, where the collecting was more result-oriented. One such was the 1980 Low Fell Project, during which Walter Hackman, Anders Albrecht, Olof Biström, Jukka Jalava, Hans Silfverberg, Vesa Varis and Rauno Väisänen collected insects in Pudasjärvi and Kittilä. Very large materials came from Pekka Nuorteva’s study of blowflies and from Kauri Mikkola’s and Pekka Vakkari’s studies on melanistic moths. Lately conservation has brought new aspects to collecting, studies such as those in which Olof Biström investigated the insect fauna of the Pyhähäkki National Park (1984 & 1989), and the Noux Lake Plateau (1989-1990), Hans Silfverberg’s investigation of Ingå Bastö (1993-1994), work by Lauri Kaila and Petri Martikainen on saproxylic insects in different forests (1990-1994), and the investigation led by Jyrki Muona concerning old forest faunas in eastern Finland (to the museum in 1997). Such studies have furnished much material for the museum collections.

The museum continues to receive insects from outsiders. As before, many students and researchers have given their material to the museum once work was done. A very large material came from Tomas Roslin’s study of dung-beetles (2001). During various excursions, too, people have collected insects for the museum both in Finland and abroad. Some expeditions have had this collecting as one of their main purposes; such were the expeditions made by Svenska Naturvetarklubben to the south-western Finnish archipelago (1960 & 1961), to the Koli mountain (1964) and to the islands of Lill-Själö (1973). Among acquisitions from abroad, especially significant are the Lepidoptera collected by Paul Grotenfelt in Greece, particularly in Microlepidoptera these faunas are largely unknown.

One of the scientifically most important recent acquisitions was the purchase of the Angelov collection of Curculionidae in 1993. In this collection are some 50.000 specimens, mostly from Bulgaria but also from elsewhere in southern Europe and Central Asia. The collection includes besides Angelov’s types also types of entomologists such as Apfelbeck, Reitter and Dieckmann. Other recent purchases include Lepidoptera collected in Central Asia by R. Lindt and U. Jürivete.

In 1902 an agricultural-entomological institution was founded at the university; it was later known i.a. as the Department of Agricultural and Forest Zoology, and nowadays as the Department of Applied Biology. Enzio Reuter was its first head. At first the institution acquired biological collections, intended for education, but soon also systematic collections. The latter received donations from many entomologists, and the collections of Arthur Boman and Bertil Poppius were purchased, further purchases were the Diptera collection of Walter Mikael Linnaniemi, and the German Diptera collection of H. Wazdek. Later acquisitions were the collections of Jaakko Listo and Johannes Linkola, as well as a large part of John Sahlberg’s collection. Large additions came with Arvi Saarinen’s collection of Hymenoptera Symphyta, Rabbe Elfving’s collection of Coleoptera, Eitel Lindqvist’s collection of Hymenoptera Symphyta, and Erkki Valkeila’s, Aimo K. Merisuo’s and Viljo Karvonen’s collections of Hymenoptera. Also worth mentioning is the collection of Erkki Peltonen, with larvae of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera Symphyta. Furthermore, in 1975 the department received the collections that had belonged to the Institute for Pest Research at the Agricultural Research Centre. During all these years the staff of the department and its students added to the collections, and so did many outsiders. Among the main contributiors at least Jaakko Kangas, Paavo Kontkanen, Martti Koponen, Jonny Perkiomäki, Mauno pohjola, Uunio Saalas and Lauri Tiensuu should be remembered. In 2006 these collections were transferred to the Zoological Museum.

Nowadays the insect collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History are in constant use. Many Finnish entomologists study insect systematics. An even larger number study their biology, or their distribution at present and earlier, and many other aspects of entomology. In such studies museum collections are essential. Many foreign entomologists also use the collections, just as Finnish entomologists can borrow material from foreign museums. During the last few years about one hundred loans have been sent each year to other entomologists, comprising almost 7000 specimens per year; on average 26 foreign scientists have visited the museum each year.

Besides the collections, the museum has recently begun to computerize some entomological data. This activity will undoubtedly become more important, but thus far it is mainly at the planning stage. Some catalogues have been published, listing the museum’s types, and additional ones will appear in one form or another. Studies of molecular biology are also presently pursued at the museum, it remains to see what demands they will make on the development of collections.