The Entomology in Argentina until the creation of the Sociedad Entomológica Argentina. A historical survey

Abstract

In this paper, a historical survey of the development of the entomological studies in Argentina from the 18th century to 1925, the year in which the Sociedad Entomológica Argentina was created, is presented. Three periods are distinguished in this historical survey: (a) research on insects in colonial and early independent Río de la Plata, and in early Argentina until the 1870s; (b) the period from c. 1870 to c. 1900, in which entomology functioned as a core around which much of the zoological studies were organized; (c) the period from c. 1910 to c. 1925, which involved the development of large entomological collections in the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences (Buenos Aires) and the Museum of La Plata, the beginnings of applied entomology with the hiring of French and American specialists, and the incorporation of women in the field.