Lorković butterfly collection
The collection is a closed collection and represents the result of the collecting, breeding, and acquisition activities of Academician Zdravko Lorković.
It is housed in 383 entomological drawers (45 × 30 cm and 45 × 50 cm) stored in five cabinets within the entomological repository of the Zoological Department. The butterfly collection of Academician Zdravko Lorković consists of two subcollections: the Lorković Fauna Subcollection and the Lorković Hybridization Subcollection. Although the collection forms a single entity, it has been divided into subcollections because of their different origins and methods of museum processing.
The Fauna Subcollection comprises butterfly specimens collected during the field research conducted by Academician Zdravko Lorković. This so-called faunistic section contains 15,047 dry-preserved specimens of diurnal and nocturnal butterflies collected during the 20th century and housed in 145 entomological drawers. The subcollection comprises 15,047 inventory records. The majority of the material was collected in Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Austria. The collection has been fully inventoried, including specimens from the subfamily Satyrinae, genus Erebia, and the family Pieridae, although species-level identification of some specimens has not yet been completed.
The second part of the collection, the Lorković Hybridization Subcollection, contains 17,663 specimens housed in 238 inventoried drawers, for which a drawer-by-drawer inventory is available. Since these specimens represent hybridization experiments, each drawer constitutes a coherent unit. The museum also holds digitized handwritten breeding and hybridization records, known as “hybridization protocols,” which are essential for understanding the hybridization material. Without this accompanying documentation, the specimens are difficult to interpret, both for non-specialists and for experts.
Collection curator: Martina Šašić Kljajo
