Overall specimens: 4,747,106
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 120
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Europe, Mainly Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 250
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 100
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 780
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 250
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 4,434
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 1,064
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 500
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Somalia
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 367
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Guyana
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 80
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy, Tuscany
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 359
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Ethiopia
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved
Specimen count: 25,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Chilopoda, Diplopoda
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: 40,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Europe
Taxonomic Coverage: Coleoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 980
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves, Mammalia
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 41
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves, Mammalia
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 250
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 280
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy, Tuscany: upper Arno valley.
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 20
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: A very small collection, including both specimens in alcohol (5) and on slides (15).
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 1,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: Collection derived from Department of Biology expeditions, GRSTS and others. Particularly interesting are those collected in collaboration with the GRSTS in Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Antartic in late 1973/early 1974. Among 200 collected and identified specimens, the Genoese researcher Michele Sarà recognized 45 species, of which 30 new to science. This collection also contains some very large and particularly beautiful sponges called Neptune's cup (Poterion neptuni), which form the coral reefs along with madrepores.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Porifera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: Alcohol preserved specimens.
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Pycnogonida
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 6
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: A very small collection, including a alcohol preserved specimen and few (5) dried specimens.
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Merostomata
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Dried, Sample Fluid Preserved
Specimen count: 1,550
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: La Specola's collection of Coelenterata consists largely of corals. An important part of the historical collection is that of Placide Duchassaing and Giovanni Michelotti, comprising material from the Caribbean region collected around 1860. Originally consisting of 409 species of Cnidaria, it was published by the collectors in two monographs in 1860 and 1864, with the description of 208 new species. The rest of the collection comes from expeditions of the Department of Biology, GRSTS and others.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Cnidaria, Ctenophora
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 30
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Coleoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: 66,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: The Rocchi collection consists in Italian and foreign aquatic beetles, from all over the world. Its value also resides in it being excellent faunal testimony of the wetlands of Tuscany. The Rocchi Collection includes about one thousand types.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Coleoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 3,500
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: The collection includes a series of over 1600 skulls (approx. 480 species) and 1900 breastbones (approx. 570 species) representing almost all the Italian bird species, which were carefully prepared and studied by a Pisan taxidermist, Gino Caiani, in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century.
Geographic Coverage: Mediterranean Sea
Taxonomic Coverage: Bryozoa
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Dried, Sample Slide Mount, Sample Fluid Preserved
Specimen count: 460
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: The museum's bryozoans collection consisted of very few historical specimens until a few years ago. Thanks to the Biodiversità Marina in Toscana (Bio MarT) project, it now numbers several hundred specimens belonging to nearly a hundred different species, all from the continental and insular Tuscan seas. The specimens are stored either dry (200), in alcohol (30) or on slides (230).
Geographic Coverage: Mediterranean Sea
Taxonomic Coverage: Bryozoa
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 80
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 330
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Somalia
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 50
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Brachyopoda
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 379
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: Italy
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 250
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Slide Mount
Specimen count: 500
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Arthropoda
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: 466,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Coleoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Dried, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 2,810
Specimens in GBIF: 100
Description: In the nineteenth century Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti and Angelo Senna studied the collection that included many specimens from Italy and from all over the world. In the 1960s parts of it was studied by the Turinese researcher Enrico Tortonese (1911-1987), who identified some new species. In the 1980s, campaigns on fishing vessels in the Sicilian Channel and southern Sardinia yielded great quantities of echinoderm specimens. In the same years, collaboration with the ISTIP of Leghorn, involving many embarkations on commercial fishing boats, produced large numbers of specimens, markedly expanding the collection from Tuscan waters. Completing the collection is an interesting group of specimens from Somalia and Kenya, which are still being studied. The collection includes approximately 1300 dried specimens, 1500 alcohol preserved specimens and 10 slides.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Echinodermata
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Dried, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 50,000
Specimens in GBIF: 198
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Arthropoda
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: Abbazzi, Piero (1928 - 2020).
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Dried, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 2,800,000
Specimens in GBIF: 13,409
Description: A number of several historical sub-collections has been embedded here, together with the most recent gatherings, by mainly keeping an organizational distinction among marine and continental mollusks. The most important collectors are Vittorio Pecchioli, Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti, Anselmo Tommasi, Vittorio Uzielli, Marianna Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona Paulucci, Giovanni Caramagna and Simone Cianfanelli; other important contribution are those from Soderi Annovazzi collection and those got thanks to research initiatives such as Miss. Biol., GRSTS, ISTIP and others.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Mollusca
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: 1,537
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Annelida
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Slide Mount
Specimen count: 383
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: Mostly Antonio Ercolini's specimens.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 11,906
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
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).
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Embedded, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 50,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: The collection includes specimens from the orders Acarina, Amblypygi, Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, Scorpiones and Solifugae. Most of the specimens belong to the order Araneae. The cataloging of specimens is partial. Published catalogs: Vanni & al. 1988 (in Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali, Memorie, Serie B 94: 373-377) and Berdondini & Whitman 2002 (in Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali, Memorie, Serie B 109: 119-156).
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Arachnida
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 23,436
Specimens in GBIF: 6,294
Description: The oldest specimens in the collection were inherited from the Medici and Habsburg-Lorraine families. One example is the large Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) which, according to Targioni Tozzetti, was displayed alive in the Loggia dei Lanzi in the mid-seventeenth century. The skeleton has survived and is now displayed at the centre of the large "Hall of Skeletons". Another curious presence in the museum is that of the naturalized specimen of a hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius): according to some researchers, it lived in the Boboli Gardens at the time of Grand Duke Peter Leopold around the second half of the 1700s. Among the many specimens whose importance is not only scientific but also historical, we can mention some New World monkeys donated by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany Maria Antonia of Bourbon in 1845. After the opening of the museum to the public in 1775, new specimens continued to be added to the Lorraine collection and the greatest increases occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century and around the middle of the twentieth century. They were the years of the great exploratory expeditions in Africa, but also in South America and Asia. The most famous people associated with these enterprises, and those involved in the collection and conservation of the specimens, were: King Victor Emmanuel II, who donated some individuals that had died in Florence's Royal Zoological Garden in the period 1863-71; Marquis Orazio Antinori, who collected in Ethiopia for the Italian Geographical Society in 1880; Count Giacomo Savorgnan di Brazzà, who collected in French Congo and Belgian Congo (presently the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1884; Dr. Leopoldo Traversi, who donated specimens captured in Ethiopia in 1887; Cavalier Leonardo Fea, who collected specimens in Burma in 1887-88; Prof. Nello Beccari, who led an expedition in British Guiana in 1931-32; Victor Emmanuel Duke of Savoy and Aosta, Count of Turin, who willed to the museum a rich collection of specimens of diverse provenience; Dr. Ugo Funaioli, who collected numerous specimens in Tanzania around 1950. Also important were the expeditions of the University of Florence and the CSFET in East Africa, which began in 1959 and ended abruptly in 1987 on account of the war and civil disorder that still torment Somalia. Today the collection is particularly rich in Italian specimens, especially small mammals from all Italian regions. They belonging to order Soricomorpha, Chiroptera and Rodentia, and are preserved in alcohol and dry, which are studied by numerous Italian and foreign specialists. Another important contribution to the growth of the mammal collection was the establishment of the Cetacean Research Centre, starting in 1986: it has operated a network for the reporting and recovery of cetaceans stranded on the Italian coast. The collection includes 46 types. Mammals that were part of the Central Collection of Italian Vertebrates (Giglioli Collection) are incorporated in the mammal collection.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Mammalia
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Skeletonized, Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Dried, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 40,400
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: The herpetological collection includes species from all over the world. Early specimens, mainly turtles' shells, date from the eighteenth century and are no longer found in the museum. In 2014 the collection included about 40400 reptiles; it mostly increased at the end of 1800, due to Enrico Hillyer Giglioli's work, and in the second part of the twentieth century, as a result of the studies of Bendetto Lanza and his colleagues. The Italian component represents the most significant portion in the collection of reptiles. In particular, the Florentine museum has the largest collection of specimens deriving from virtually all the Italian and Corsican islands and islets. The collection is also very valuable on account of the huge number of specimens from missions in Somalia throughout the twentieth century.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Crocodylia, Sphenodontia, Squamata, Testudines
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Storage Indoors, Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Skeletonized
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: 2,545
Description: The collection includes species from all over the world. In 2014 the collection included about 26500 amphibians; it mostly increased at the end of 1800, due to Enrico Hillyer Giglioli's work, and in the second part of the twentieth century, as a result of the studies of Bendetto Lanza and his colleagues. The largest part of the amphibian collection consists of Italian specimens, with rich series of individuals of the same species, but deriving from different localities, important for the study of the species distribution and variability. However, frogs and toads from other regions of the world are also well represented, with taxa belonging to almost all the existing families.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Amphibia
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Tanned, Sample Skeletonized, Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Dried, Storage Indoors
Specimen count: 20,000
Specimens in GBIF: 1,282
Description: The museum's ornithological collection is one of the most important in Italy and in Europe, with representatives of all the orders and almost all the families. Many specimens are mounted on pedestals, but most consist of "study skins". Until a few decades ago, the number of naturalized birds was much higher but the space necessary to house them without damage to the plumage was not sufficient; hence, museum staff began the work of dismounting them from the pedestals and trasforming them into study skins. Some of the birds in the collection date to the end of the eighteenth century. In addition to being an interesting historical datum, this information is very important as documentation of the species known at that time and as indication of the ancient preservation techniques.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Aves
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: 15,213
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: One of the most important historical collections of the museum is undoubtedly the Camillo Rondani's (1808-1879) collection of dipterans and hymenopterans. His collection has enormous scientific importance, since it includes the "type specimens" from which he named new species. The collection was purchased by the Museum in 1880 for 4,000 lire. It is stored in the original wooden boxes and is kept separate from the general collection. It includes mainly dipterans.
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Diptera, Hymenoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Pinned
Specimen count: 99,948
Specimens in GBIF: 3,733
Description: The butterfly collection of Roger Verity (1883-1959) is of particular historical and scientific importance. His collection was obtained by personal collecting, exchanges with other collectors and the purchase of specimens or whole collections, for istance the Ubaldo Rocci's (1885-1943) collection. The Verity collection is undoubtedly one of the most important butterfly collections in Italy.
Geographic Coverage: World, Mainly The Palearctic (Italy, France, Spain, England, Asia Minor, North and East Africa, Central Asia, North America)
Taxonomic Coverage: Lepidoptera
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: 900,000
Specimens in GBIF: 203
Description: The general entomological collection consists of all specimens not included in the entomological collections that have been separately cataloged for historical or scientific distinctiveness.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Insecta
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Fluid Preserved, Sample Skeletonized, Storage Indoors, Sample Dried
Specimen count: 38,000
Specimens in GBIF: 5,155
Description: The museum's ichthyological collection includes nea 40,000 specimens, mostly preserved in ethanol; only a few specimens are dry preparations, while others are only represented by some skeletal structures (e.g. the jaws of some shark species). The most important nucleus of the collection consists of specimens already forming part of the "Central collection of Italian Vertebrates" established by Enrico Hillyer Giglioli (1845-1909). The italian material dating to the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century is scientifically very important, since it provides a detailed view of the Tuscan and Italian fish fauna before the massive introduction of alien species starting in the first decades of the 1900s. Other important parts of the ichthyological collection are the material collected by Captain Gaetano Chierchia (1850-1922), purchased in 1910 and mainly including marine species from tropical and subtropical Asia and South America, and the material resulting from the numerous scientific missions in Somalia carried out until relatively recent times by museum personnel together with researchers from the Institute of Zoology of the University and the Centre for the Study of tropical Faunas and Ecology of the Italian national Research Council (CNR). Also important are the many type specimens: they represent 42 taxa (41 actinopterygians and 1 elasmobranch), more than half of which are still considered valid. Many specimens are noteworthy on account of their rarity and their morphological, biological or historical peculiarity. The collection contains numerous interesting specimens of Italian abyssal fishes, many of them collected by Enrico Hillyer Giglioli.
Geographic Coverage: World
Taxonomic Coverage: Chondrichthyes, Myxini, Osteichthyes, Petromyzonti
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Preserved Organisms
Preservation Type: Sample Dried
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: 6
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: Animals
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: n/a
Preservation Type: n/a
Specimen count: n/a
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: n/a
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)
Collection Type: Biological
Preservation Type: Storage Other
Specimen count: 80,000
Specimens in GBIF: n/a
Description: Butterfly collection including more than 80,000 set specimens, with emphasis on Palaearctic and Sino-Himalayan taxa, Pieridae, Papilionidae, Nymphalidae Satyrinae. mt DNA sequences available for several specimens.
Geographic Coverage: n/a
Taxonomic Coverage: n/a
Institution: Sede della Specola del Museo di Storia naturale di Firenze | La Specola headquarter of the Natural History Museum in Florence (MSNF-SPE)