Arachnologische Mitteilungen 55

Arachnologische Mitteilungen / Arachnology Letters 55: 36-41 Karlsruhe, April 2018 The Zoology Museum of the University of Padova finds its roots in the 18th century natural history collections of An­ tonio Vallisneri (1661–1730), a professor of medicine. It be­ came a proper Museum of Zoology in 1869 under the chair of Giovanni Canestrini (1835–1900), who made great efforts towards enlarging and cataloguing the entire zoological col­ lections and providing the museum with an international pro­ file. Canestrini was one of the most eminent Italian zoologists of the 19 th century, known for his first translation of Charles Darwin’s “On the origin of species” in 1864 and for his ef­ fort in spreading the evolutionary theory in Italy (Minelli & Casellato 2001). After the completion of his studies at the University of Vienna in 1861, he became a professor of Natu­ ral History at the University of Modena from 1862 to 1869, working as a zoologist and anthropologist and publishing the first catalogues of Italian spiders together with Pietro Pavesi (1844–1907) (Canestrini & Pavesi 1868, Canestrini & Pavesi 1870). In 1869, he became Professor of Zoology, Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Padova where he remained until his death. During this period he dedicated most of his works to arachnology, publishing the first consistent studies on this field in Italy together with his students, among whom emerged relevant personalities of Italian zoology, such as Filippo Fanzago (1852–1889) and Antonio Berlese (1863–1927) (Minelli 1998, Bagella & Pan­ taleoni 2011, Guariento et al. 2016a). In the last two decades of his life, Canestrini worked almost exclusively on mites and from 1885 to 1889 published eight volumes of the catalogue of Italian Acari entitled “Prospetto dell’acarofauna Italiana”, that was left unfinished, as well as several dozen of papers describing new species (Ragusa 2002). His work continued tirelessly until his death in Padova in 1900. After Canestrini, the museum went through several pe­ riods of abandonment in the 20 th century, with a disconti­ nuous management and curation which resulted in the loss of important parts of the collections. A temporary recovery of the collections was completed by Marcuzzi (1966) but the museum reopened to the public only in 2004 (Nicolosi 2016). In 2015, when our project started, Canestrini’s arachnological collection was in a precarious status with its content being unknown, despite an attempt at revision in the 1980s. Material and methods First, a comprehensive collection database has been comple­ ted, registering locality information from data labels in the Darwin Core standard (Wieczorek et al. 2012). Each label provides the name of a taxon, the locality, the date (often the date of inventory in the collection) and an inventory number referring to the original catalogues compiled by Canestri­ ni. These catalogues, deposited in the Museum and descri­ Giovanni Canestrini‘s heritage at the Zoology Museum of Padova University (Italy): a rediscovery of his arachnological collections and described species Luis Alessandro Guariento, Maria Chiara Bonvicini, Loriano Ballarin, Umberto Devincenzo, Giulio Gardini, Enzo Moretto, Paolo Pantini & Paola Nicolosi doi: 10.30963/aramit5506 Abstract. Giovanni Canestrini (1835–1900) was the pioneer of arachnology in Italy, who published the first catalogue of Italian spiders and a total of 87 papers in the field. His interests covered almost all the Italian arachnid orders, although in the last part of his life he focused on acarology, in which he became a leading world expert. The remains of Canestrini’s arachnological collection deposited in the Zoology Museum of Padova University are represented by spiders (about 850 tubes), mites (438 microscope slides, 115 tubes), harvest- men (120), pseudoscorpions (63), scorpions (19) and solifuges (1). The collection is now part of a large revision project aiming at better understanding and clarifying the scientific heritage of Canestrini, including an inventory of the type material from Canestrini and other European arachnologists who contributed to his collection (e.g., T. Thorell). The first results of the collection revision outlining different arachnid orders and highlighting the occurrence of type material are presented here. Brief historical information on Canestrini and his pupils is also provided. Keywords : arachnids, curation, museum collection, type material Zusammenfassung. Giovanni Canestrinis Erbe am Zoologischen Museum der Universität Padua (Italien): eine Wiederentdec- kung seiner arachnologischen Sammlungen und beschriebenen Arten. Giovanni Canestrini (1835–1900) war der Pionier der Arach- nologie in Italien, der den ersten Katalog der Spinnen Italiens und insgesamt 87 Fachartikel veröffentlichte. Seine Interessen lagen auf fast allen italienischen Spinnentier-Ordnungen, auch wenn er sich im letzten Abschnitt seines Lebens auf die Milbenkunde konzentrier- te, in der er ein weltweiter Experte wurde. Die am Zoologischen Museum der Universität Padua verbliebene arachnologische Sammlung Canestrinis besteht aus Spinnen (circa 850 Röhrchen), Milben (438 Mikroskop-Präparate, 115 Röhrchen), Weberknechten (120), Pseudo- skorpionen (63), Skorpionen (19) undWalzenspinnen (1). Der Sammlung wird nun großes Revisions-Projekt gewidmet, mit dem Ziel das wissenschaftliche Erbe Canestrini besser verstehen und einordnen zu können, einschließlich einer Inventarisierung des Typenmaterial von Canestrini und anderer europäischer Arachnologen, die zur Sammlung beigetragen haben (z. B. T. Thorell). Die ersten Ergebnisse der Revision der Sammlung fassen die verschiedenen Arachniden-Ordnungen zusammen und stellen die vorhandenen Typen heraus. Kurze geschichtliche Informationen über Canestrini und seine Schüler werden ergänzt. This contribution was presented at the 30th European Congress of Arachnology, Nottingham, 2017 August 20-25 Luis Alessandro GUARIENTO, Maria Chiara BONVICINI, Paola NICOLOSI, Museum of Zoology, University of Padova Via Giuseppe Jappelli 1/A, Padova 35121, Italy; E-mail: guarientoluis@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0068-8234 ; mc.bonvi@gmail.com; paola.nicolosi@unipd.it Loriano BALLARIN, Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via Ugo Bassi, 58/B, Padova 35131, Italy; E-mail: loriano.ballarin@unipd.it Enzo MORETTO, Umberto DEVINCENZO, Esapolis Invertebrate Museum, Via dei Colli 28, Padova 35143, Italy; E-mail: info@butterflyarc.it; umberto.gbr92@gmail.com Giulio GARDINI, Società Entomologica Italiana, Via Brigata Liguria 9, Genova 16121, Italy; E-mail :giuliogardini@libero.it Paolo PANTINI, Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali ‘Enrico Caffi’, Piazza Cittadella 10, Bergamo 24129, Italy; E-mail: ppantini@comune.bg.it submitted 17.1.2018, accepted 10.2.2018, online 30.4.2018