Registro de Instituciones, Colecciones y Bases de Datos de Biodiversidad: Colección

Don Juan de Torres Sala was born in Pego (Alicante) in 1892. From the childhood he manifested a great vocation for the Zoology and particularly by the insects although he was not a biologist. When he was twelve years old he collected his first entomological collection. The magnificent work which consecrated more than sixty years of his life began at this age. The Entomological Collection Juan de Torres Sala is the origin and foundation of the Foundation that takes his name and the Valencian Museum of Natural History. This collection are mainly integrated by species of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera from all the world. It also has an important representation of iberian fauna, particularly from the Valencian Community. This collection includes the important sub-collection of beetles of Don Emilio Moróder, another eminent valencian naturalistic. The collection Torres Sala is formed by the following elements: 700 entomological boxes with more than 6.000 species and 75.000 specimens, the file of data with the taxonomical determination and localities of each specimen, the Catalog of the «Collection Torres Sala» (compilation of two volumes in those the species of the collection are included until it publication data by the Diputación Provincial de Valencia in 1962), the author’s library, with important and valuable works that were donated by its proprietor to the Foundation Torres Sala. The type specimens of the collection Torres Sala corresponding to 31 species or subspecies of Coleoptera.