Coleoptera
Among the taxonomic focuses of the Senckenberg collection are the families Cerambycidae or long-horned beetles (collections of Elli Franz, Bernhard Schwarzer and others), Gyrinidae or whirligig beetles (collection of Georg Ochs), Eucnemidae or false click beetles (collection of Wilhelm Lucht) and Curculionidae or weevils (collection of Bronislaw Folwaczny and others). Other collections have a geographical focus, for example, Palaearctic beetles (collection of the chemist and Nobel laureate Carl Bosch), beetles from Nepal (collection of Jochen Martens) or beetles from the Cap Verde Islands (collection of Michael Geisthardt). Furthermore, there is a separate collection of beetles from the state of Hesse (Hesse/ Central Europe collection). This local reference collection was built up and is maintained by the members of the Hessian Coleopterologists. It includes collections of the late Hermann Vogt, Wilhelm Lucht, Dieter Liebegott and others. The world-wide beetle collection stored in Entomology I comprises about 1.7 million pinned specimens, including 6542 holo-, lecto- and paratypes.
Thysanoptera
In the course of his 40 years of research on Thysanoptera, Richard zur Strassen accumulated a very comprehensive Thysanoptera collection, one of the three most important in the world. The Thysanoptera collection was substantially enlarged by the acquisition of collections of Heinrich Karny (1886-1939), Hermann Priesner (1891-1974) and Erich Titschak (1893-1978). The Thysanoptera collection comprises about 270,000 specimens mounted on slides or kept in alcohol. It includes 3600 species of which 2120 are represented by holo-, lecto-, or paratypes.
Strepsiptera
Strepsiptera kept in Entomology I stem basically from the important collection of Ragnar Kinzelbach. The collection contains 1189 specimens mounted on slides. Altogether, there are 77 species of which 40 are represented by holo- or paratypes.
An overview of the collections kept in Entomology I is given by Elli Franz (Senck. biol., Sonderheft B, 48: 55-72, 1967) and Richard zur Strassen (175 Jahre Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Jubiläumsband 2, Sektion Entomologie I, 87-95, 1994).
History
The Section of Entomology was founded in 1822 by four entomologically interested citizens of Frankfurt under the chairmanship of Carl von Heyden (1793-1866). The collections were maintained by volunteers until 1919, for example by Lucas von Heyden (1838-1915), the founder of Hessian beetle faunistics. The first part time salaried position as curator was created in 1919 and taken over by the world renowned lepidopterologist Adalbert Seitz (1869-1938). After his death Elli Franz (1896-1983) became the sections first full time curator in 1938. After her retirement Entomology was subdivided into four independent sections. Section Entomology I was founded in 1967 and led by Richard zur Strassen (1926-2013). In 1992 Damir Kovac became his successor.
A survey of the history of Section Entomology I is given by Elli Franz (Senck. biol., Sonderheft B, 48: 55-72, 1967) and Richard zur Strassen (175 Jahre Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Jubiläumsband 2, Sektion Entomologie I, 87-95, 1994).