Collector donates 2 thousand insects to Rio National Museum

Doctor Luiz Cláudio Stawiarski’s office has been taken over by insects. On the table, frames showcase a wide variety of spiders, beetles, and dragonflies. Another piece of furniture has drawers filled with butterflies and moths. All these nearly 2 thousand insects will be donated this afternoon (Feb. 23) to the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro in a bid to help reconstruct the collection, destroyed by a devastating fire in September last year.

“See, green-winged butterflies, very rare. And this is the largest butterflies species found in Brazil,” the doctor said, proud of his collection. He is the son of Biology Professor Victor Stawiarski, who taught at the National Museum for 30 years and passed away in 1979. The insects were collected by both him and his father in Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, and Pará. The collection is 30 to 40 years old.

The material in the doctor’s house had been used by his father during his classes. The biologist had also collected hundreds of other insects, which were part of the National Museum’s collection. “The daughter had the idea to make the donation. I can’t say [the material] is going to a place it should never have left, because if it had stayed there, it would have burned,” Luiz Cláudio said.

The donation will be made on behalf of Victor Stawiarski: “He’ll be happy for it, wherever he is,” said Luiz Cláudio, who dedicated months to restoring and organizing the material.

Doctor Luiz Cláudio Stawiarski - Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

International renown

Professor Marcela Monne at the Entomology Department of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said the National Museum’s insect archive was a by-word both in and outside of the country. The collection is estimated to have included five to ten million pieces, she said. A very small portion of it escaped the fire, 42 thousand specimens of flies and mosquitoes.

Stawiarski contacted Monne to talk about the donation. The professor explains that the collection set for donation will be assessed for quality and made available as part of the scientific archive, used for research. Tomorrow, a National Museum truck will pick up the material at Luiz Cláudio’s house to take it to Rio.

Professor Monne recounts that, after the fire, she has received messages from people interested in learning how to collect insects to help rebuild the archive. She explains, however, that the collection cannot be carried out by amateurs, as a permit must be issued by the Chico Mendes Institute for the Preservation of Biodiversity. “Researchers are only allowed to collect animals or plants with which they work, in their fields of expertise,” she said.