The pioneers of entomology in Costa Rica
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| Formato: | artículo original |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de Publicación: | 2023 |
| Descripción: | Introduction: The study of insects prompted an interest by the naturalists who explored Costa Rica since the 19th century, but this occurred as personal endeavors, and was not due to a national effort to promote systematic research on the country’s entomofauna. This was continued for more than a century. Objective: To provide an overview of the development of entomology, from the republican era to the founding of the Insect Museum at the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Methods: Archives and databases from both national and foreign museums and libraries were used primarily to reconstruct this process. Results: The first person to study insects in Costa Rica was the German naturalist Karl Hoffmann, starting in 1854; however, he died young. He was followed by the Swiss naturalist Paul Biolley in 1886, who in turn trained José Fidel Tristán as the first Costa Rican entomologist, by the time the Englishmen Osbert Salvin and Frederick D. Godman were fostering Biologia Centrali-Americana, a monumental work of a regional nature. Early in the 20th century several Americans arrived, among whom William M. Schaus and Philip and Amelia Calvert stood out. Later, in the 1930s, when the agricultural development of the country was encouraged, teaching of applied entomology was promoted, for which, at different times, the American Charles Ballou and the Germans Fernando Nevermann and Alexander Bierig were hired. Finally, in 1959, the UCR recruited the Costa Rican Álvaro Wille from the United States, who founded the Insect Museum in 1962. Conclusions: In an interval of 110 years, a slow, disjointed and even random process characterized the development of entomology in the country, which culminated in 1962 with the beginning of the institutionalization of this discipline, until it became a component of daily life, as it is today. |
| País: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Institución: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:portal.ucr.ac.cr:article/57817 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/57817 |
| Palabra clave: | history; insects; museums; universities; institutionalization. historia; insectos; museos; universidades; institucionalización. |