Heritage Malta’s National Museum of Natural History has just acquired a collection of mounted insects. The collection consisting of ten entomological boxes containing mostly butterflies and moths was donated by Dr Mario Zammit. The collection adds to the wealth of specimens found in the museum. The reference collection, most of which is now in digitised format, is available for study to any interested researcher in natural sciences.

This donation is the latest of a number of collections acquired by the National Museum of Natural History over the past five years. Several thousands specimens have been donated by individuals, including the entomological collections of Mr Guido Lanfranco, Dr Carmelo De Lucca, Mr Henry Borg Barthet, and from members of the Entomological Society of Malta. A large conchological collection was donated by the Glenville family and another small collection of birds and shells from the family of the late Victor Vella Muskat of Gozo.

Dr Zammit was introduced to the world of insects by the late Anthony Valletta with whom Dr Zammit used to spend much of his childhood, learning about the wonderful world of insects. Moreover, as a student at St Joseph Secondary School his biology teacher was Paul Sammut, Malta’s foremost authority on Lepidoptera (butterflies).

Dr Zammit started his collection early but it was mainly during his Sixth Form work phase that the collection really flourished. Moths abounded at his place of work; most were dead from electrocution, trapped in the many hanging insect catchers distributed all over the factory. Dr Zammit graduated in Dental Surgery from the University of Malta in 1990, and is currently reading for a Masters in Eastern Philosophy, focusing on the body.

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