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.

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.

PUBLICATIONS

 * 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.