Description
The collection includes different phyla, from the primitive Platyhelminthes to the Anellida and Tunicata. Important helminthologists, such as Iginio Sciacchitano, Pietro Marchi, Giuseppe Colosi and Antonio Ercolini, contributed to the creation of these collections. The Anellida collection includes a good representation of marine polychaetes, leeches and worms, above all Italian and East African. Unfortunately, part of the historical material has deteriorated or was destroyed in the first half of the twentieth century; however, there is still material from the Andreini, Sciacchitano and Scortecci collections. Other specimens have come from recent research missions conducted by the museum and the CSFET in Somalia. Specimens of the Sipuncula and Echiura deriving in small part from the old collections curated by Targioni Tozzetti in the second half of the nineteenth century and in large part from recent collecting in Somalia during research campaigns conducted by the museum and the CSFET. Numerous specimens of parasitic worms have come from livestock slaughtered in the abattoirs around the end of the nineteenth century, while many other specimens are of human origin. For example, there is a small collection of pork tapeworms (Taenia solium).
