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Motschoulsky, Victor Ivanovitsch de (1810-1871)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Victor Ivanovitsch Motschulsky (Sometimes Victor von Motschoulsky, Russian: Виктор Иванович Мочульский, 11 April 1810 St. Petersburg - 5 June 1871 Simferopol) was a Russian entomologist mainly interested in beetles. His collection is currently kept in the Zoological Museum of the State University of Moscow, Russia (ZMUM).
Motschulsky was an Imperial Army colonel who undertook extended trips abroad. He studied and described many new beetles from Siberia ,Alaska, the United States of America, Europe, and Asia. Whilst he tended to ignore previous work and his own work on classification was of poor quality, Motschulsky made a massive contribution to entomology, exploring hitherto unworked regions, often in very difficult terrain. He described many new genera and species, a high proportion of which remain valid.
Primary location of author's collection: Zoological Museum of the Moscow State University.
PUBLICATIONS
- Krivokhatsky VA (2013) An adventurous life of Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky, described by himself. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow & St. Petersburg, 261 pp. [in Russian]
- Mikhailov K, Golovatch S (2014) Book Review: An adventurous life of Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky, described by himself. ZooKeys 371: 85–90. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.371.7028.
- Motschoulsky, V. de. 1855. Etudes Entomologiques 4: 1-84
- Motschoulsky, V. de. 1860b [1859]. Entomologie speciale. Insectes des Indes orientales, et de contrées analogues. Études entomologiques. Part 8. Helsinki: Imprim. Soc. Littér. Finnoise, 187 pp.
- Motschoulsky, V. de. 1863. Essai d'un catalogue des insectes de l'île Ceylan (suite). Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 36(3 3: 1-153.
- Motschoulsky, V. de. 1866. Catalogue des insectes reçus du Japon. Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 39: 163-200.
- Victor, T. 1839. Insectes du Caucase et des provinces transcaucasiennes. Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 12: 44-68 Note:Motschoulsky had a serious falling out with his usual editors, who subsequently refused to publish his work. He therefore used his Christian name as his surname, just to confuse them.