Corresponding author: Sergei Golovatch (
Academic editor: Didier Spiegel
The little that remains of Motschoulsky’s myriapodological legacy in the collection of Moscow’s Zoological Museum proves to be of very limited value. Only one species of Diplopoda described by Motschoulsky, the Caucasian
Golovatch S (2014) The myriapodological legacy of Victor Ivanovich Motschoulsky (1810–1871). ZooKeys 426: 11–16. doi:
With the recent publication of V. I. Motschoulsky’s memoirs (
Portrait of Victor Ivanovich Motschoulsky.
Motschoulsky’s published contributions to myriapodology are very few, but even these have largely remained neglected. To my knowledge, no-one has ever attempted to revise any of Motschoulsky’s myriapod types.
The Moscow Museum collection of
Picture showing Motschoulsky’s box with pinned dry
Despite such a profound diversity, most of the diplopods are devoid of labels. Those which are labeled are either identified (e.g. “
The few samples of “
Motschoulsky, sometimes under the pseudonym “Victor”, is known to have published only four valid myriapod species. The earliest is
The second valid diplopod name proposed by
A careful search for type material has revealed two type series only: the holotype of
Similarly, all 3 syntypes of
To summarize, the little that remains of Motschoulsky’s myriapodological legacy in the collection of the Moscow Museum proves to be of very limited value. However, even the negative result is a result. Only one species of
I thank cordially Mrs Lyudmila P. Grozdilova and the remaining staff of the library of the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia for the great help they rendered during my bibliographical research on V. I. Motschoulsky’s published legacy. Special thanks go to John G. E. Lewis (Taunton, Somerset, UK) for giving his opinion on the identity of one of the relevant types, to Pavel E. Stoev (Sofia, Bulgaria) for a valuable pre-publication review of the manuscript, to Alessandro Minelli (Padova, Italy) for solving a technical problem, as well as to Aleksandr Sysoev (ZMUM) for taking the picture of Motschoulsky’s collection of