Institute of Entomology Guido Grandi
Guido Grandi founded the Institute of Entomology at the University of Bologna in 1926 and immediately advanced insect collection.
Unlike what was a common thought in the academic field, which relegated collections to amateur activities not suited to a university research institute, Grandi considered that a well-structured and organized collection could acquire both a high educational and scientific value. For this reason, he was the first, with the help of his colleagues at the Institute, to collect a large amount of material which was then prepared, arranged and ordered with great skill by the technician Dante Faggioli.
Very beautiful, for example, are the lepidopteran larvae cleaned of their internal organs and, using a precision technique based on artisanal tools, inflated with hot air. Dante Faggioli was also of great help when, in 1943, Grandi, under the threat of wartime bombing, decided to mobilize the Institute's assets, including the entomological collection. Initially, the collection was transferred to a villa rented by the University about 15 km from Bologna. In November, however, following other events also linked to the war, the collection was moved to the Boncompagni Castle in Vignola (MO), where it would later be combined with Carlo Menozzi's important collection of ants. After the liberation and some renovation work, in the winter of 1945-46, the collection, fortunately unharmed, returned to the Institute's headquarters at the University, where it remained until the transfer of the Faculty of Agriculture to its current location in Viale Fanin.
The Guido Grandi entomological collection consists of approximately 4000 entomological boxes. Most of the boxes constitute the "taxonomic collection", containing different species ordered with a systematic criterion, the result of the contribution of many entomologists from all over the world and the work of the researchers who have followed one another at the Institute. Within this part of the collection, there are several "holotypes" (the specimen used by the author to describe a species for the first time), of great scientific value. Part of this collection also comes from exchanges that Guido Grandi carried out with other important entomologists, such as Mario Bezzi for the Diptera collection.
In particular, the following entomological boxes, divided by the different Orders of Insects, are present in the current collection:
· 15 Odonata
· 4 Blattoidea
· 2 Phasmoidea
· 26 Dermaptera
· 2 Mantoidea
· 40 Orthoptera
· 102 Hemiptera
· 36 Neuroptera
· 3 Trichoptera
· 4 Mecoptera
· 292 Lepidoptera
· 299 Diptera
· 461 Coleoptera
· 619 Hymenoptera.
Within the Hymenoptera order, there are the 110 boxes that constitute the precious "Menozzi" ant collection. Carlo Menozzi was an internationally renowned myrmecologist who travelled the world in search of ants to enrich his collection, describing many new species. The “Menozzi” collection contains several holotypes and exotic specimens of ants. To these boxes, 57 Apoidea and Vespoidea Hymenoptera boxes were added, containing specimens from different parts of the world and of great scientific value, collected by Don Bruno Bonelli, a passionate entomologist and great friend of Guido Grandi, from whom he acquired the passion for this discipline. Also worth mentioning are the collections of Coleoptera, Diptera Tachinidae, Neuroptera and Ephemeroptera grown through the activity of entomologists such as Adolfo Falzoni, Giuseppe Leoni, Egidio Mellini, Marta Grandi, and the recent acquisition of a collection of Diptera Syrphidae by Giovanni Burgio, updated by the collaboration of Daniele Sommaggio. Hoverflies in the “Guido Grandi Collection” of DiSTA, University of Bologna.
In the recent past, part of the taxonomic collection had been transferred to the Phytopathological Service of the Emilia-Romagna Region, whose technicians had contributed to its formation. In 2019, following an agreement between the Region and the DISTAL, which currently manages the collection, the two parts were reunited, and many other boxes were acquired.
Added to the "taxonomic collection" are 294 "biological boxes", in which insects of agricultural and forestry importance are preserved, including the damaged parts of the host plant ("the damage") and the natural enemies (predators or parasitoids), which together provide the biology of the organism of interest. These boxes, thanks to the great expertise and technical knowledge of the entomologists, are of great historical and aesthetic value, as well as scientific, and have been widely used for educational purposes. There are also 70 boxes that relate to insects from different biocenoses, for example, those found on plant species such as alfalfa, hemp, corn, etc.
The biological collection also includes ten boxes of "myrmecophiles", insects that live in symbiosis with ants, and another 40 boxes, very beautiful, which illustrate the different shapes and colors of insects. To all these, 117 boxes of Aculeate Hymenoptera were by Grandi who collected the specimens himself during his research activity and published them in volume 25 (1961) of the journal "Bollettino dell’Istituto di Entomologia dell’Università di Bologna" ("Studies by an entomologist on the higher Hymenoptera”).
There are also many species of insects preserved in alcohol: of particular interest is a collection of Hymenoptera Agaonidae pollinators of figs, collected by Grandi during his studies. This collection is the most important in the world for this insect group.
In total, the “Guido Grandi” collection includes over 51,000 specimens, belonging to approximately 3,000 different species of insects.
The collection is completed by many color-illustrated, educational tables which are real museum artifacts of high artistic value. These tables were used in entomology lessons until the mid-1980s and are of great scientific and historical importance. The tables can also be considered as a historical database that demonstrates and tells the value of entomology over time.