Within the Porvoo Museum natural history collection, the largest percentage of the specimens are insects. And similarly the largest percentage of the insect collection is butterflies. For this we can thank several hardworking local collectors.
A particular mention could be made of Carl-Johan Widén’s butterfly collection, which includes over 10 000 specimens from about 900 species, all collected from the same area over the course of almost a hundred years. The collection includes three specimens from Pellinki and nearby areas that were the first individuals collected of species that were brand-new to Finland: a Heliothis adaucta from Kabböle in 1943, a lace border Scopula ornata from Gäddrag in 1953 and a lesser-spotted pinion Cosmia affinis from Hasselö in 1963. Many species that can no longer be encountered in the area are also included in the collection.
The butterfly collection of Eino J. Seppänen, which includes over 8 600 specimens from 780 species, includes in addition to the more traditional pinned adult butterflies even about 400 caterpillars from 290 different species. The archivist Eino J. Seppänen was an incredibly skilled amateur and he even published books about Finnish butterflies: Suomen suurperhostoukkien ravintokasvit (1954) and Suurperhostemme talvehtimisasteet (1969).
The third notable collection of butterflies in the museum’s collection goes by the name of the Arthur Magnusson collection. It includes well over 4500 specimens from over 700 species- Magnusson was also a skilled carpenter and he has constructed two high quality sets of cabinets himself to house his butterfly collection.
The rest of the museum’s insect collections consist mostly of beetles from the Porvoo region.
The molluscs and arthropods in the collection mostly originate from outside of Finland.
