Located at the "Dome" Visitor Center, the Biodiversity Museum houses thousands of specimens of butterflies, mammals, snakes, birds, etc.

 

The collection is the result of decades of scientific research, especially entomological, aimed at bringing together all the available and possible data, depending on the specializations of the researchers involved, on biodiversity in Italy, more generally in central-southern regions and island and, in particular, in Calabria and - above all – in Sila.

 

In the museum you can identify / admire all or almost all Italian mammals including:

• all the rare mustelids of the southern Italian forests; all Italian bats; all Italian mice; all Italian insectivores (shrews, moles, etc.);
• all, or quite so, Italian birds;
• all Italian amphibians;
• all, or almost all, Italian reptiles including all the Italian snakes, even poisonous;
• about 22,000 insects of central / southern Italy including all Italian daytime butterflies, all nocturnal butterflies captured in southern Italy in the last 60 years, all the species of the other orders of insects that you might find walking in central / southern Italy .

Furthermore:

• the most poisonous snakes in the world;
• the largest and most poisonous scorpions in the world;
• the largest and most beautiful night butterflies in the world;
• the largest, most beautiful and rare butterflies in the world.

 

All the boxed finds were inserted in 162 special entomological boxes (built ad hoc) in wood and crystal glass. Vertical divisions with colored cord were made in them and the specimens were tapped with perfect alignment and all labeled with reference to the capture site, date and name of the collector. In addition, the specimens were classified, with a high degree of specialist commitment, in almost the whole collection and in each box the names of Class, Order, Family and, for the specimens, the names of the genus and of the species are indicated.

For more information:
opening hours: 9.00am - 1.00pm; 14:00 to 18:00

contacts : 
+39 339 1963 321 ing. Claudio Belcastro
+39 348 9153 616 dott. Valerio Viglioglia