The Insect Museum in Pyatigorsk, Russia

Community and Forum → Blog → The Insect Museum in Pyatigorsk, Russia

Lev Bely, 10.02.2012 16:55

The Insect Museum works since 1995 in the Akademicheskaya (Elizavetinskaya) gallery in Pyatigorsk, Russia. There is a collection of about 1000 tropical and Caucasian insects partly gathered by Valentin Tikhonov, entomologist and the owner of the collection comprised Caucasian and South American butterflies. Other exposition pieces are originally from tropical farms and private collections, some of them are over 100 years old.

Dried collection things are accompanied by the alive: you can see a few spider species, scorpions, cockroaches, stick insects, tropical bugs, as well as enjoy viewing chameleons, lizards, frogs and snakes.

The very gallery building is curious itself. The Italian Renaissance house of the Elizavetinskaya (its first name) gallery was made with mashuk stone in 1848—1850 yy. by an architect Samuil Upton. For this work and the Narzannaya gallery in Kislovodsk he was honored with an academic degree. In 1925 the gallery was renamed to Akademicheskaya after the Academy of Sciences that celebrated 200 years. Anyway, changing names couldn't change the beautiful panoramic view over the town and mountains what you can see outside the gallery.

Valentin Tikhonov, the entomologist and founder of the Insect Museum, got a Ph.D. in the Department of Entomology of the Faculty of Biology and Soil Science of Saint Petersburg State University. The Ph.D. topic name is “Lepidoptera: Geometridae of the Northern Caucasus”. Today he keeps up the Insect Museum and arranges expeditions.

The Insect Museum is open daily, 10—21.

Butterflies of the Republic of Dagestan, http://babochki-kavkaza.ru, KMV line, http://kmvline.ru

Photo of the museum exposition by Valentin Tikhonov.

All the rest posts on: Exhibition, Russia