Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoologia Agraria

The Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoologia Agraria (Centre for Experimental Agricultural Zoology), located in Florence, Italy, is the oldest phytopathology centre in the world.

Although the Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoologia Agraria, which includes L'Istituto è sede dell' Accademia Nazionale Italiana di Entomologia, was not officially formed until 1875 its activity can be traced back at least ten years prior.

In Florence scientific agriculture, promoted by the Lorena dynasty, was well established at the already centennial Academy of the Georgofili, the Ministry of Agriculture, then in Via Pandolfini. The Lorena family sought the advice of Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti, holder of the chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy of the Invertebrates, to obtain answers to the pressing problems presented by locusts, scale insects which were major pests of peaches, and other phytophagous insects and by diseases of silkworms. He suggested the foundation of a specialised institute.

The resultant station was a centre for the co-ordination of research into agricultural pests, mainly insects for the whole of Italy involving general agrarian representation, the Agricultural Colleges and private individuals. It was the headquarters of the Italian Entomological Society following its foundation in 1869.

Targioni, the President of that society for thirty years became the Director of the Institute, the first centre for phytopathogy in the world. His main assistants were Fernandino Maria Piccioli, Aggregate Professor of Entomology and the Curator of the Gabinetto di Zoologia e Anatomia comparata degli animali invertebrate at the R. Museo di Firenze Museum of Florence. The conservator at the institute's museum was Oreste Battaglini Mancini.

The first collections of insects originated, partially, from the duplicates from La Specola. Expanded by gifts from Ferdinando Piccioli, and Marquis Pietro Bargagli. Some very large collections were then acquired: Macrolepidoptera from Fritz Rühl of Zurich, Microlepidoptera Piralidini from Otto Staudinger of Dresden,and collections from Professor Pietro Stefanelli. Many were then added by workers at the Institute and from the Forest Institute of Vallombrosa, from forest Inspectors, the "agencies" of the tobacco cultivations and from private individuals who had requested determinations. The collections are extant.

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