On the Lepidoptera collection created by Petar Novak, stored in Natural History Museum in Split

Abstract

In this work we will present the Lepidopterological collection which is stored in the Natural History Museum in Split created by Petar Novak for the exhibition purposes of the Museum. Aside from Lepidoptera, the collection contains other orders of insects including Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Odonata, Hymenoptera, and Diptera which await taxonomical revaluation. The material was collected in the first half of the 20th century, mostly around Kaštela near Split. The collection contains 273 specimens belonging to 143 species. The Rhopalocera are presented with five families and 36 species, while Heterocera contains 21 families and 107 species.