Stazione Bacologica Sperimentale
Encyclopedia
The Stazione Bacologica Sperimentale is an institution specialising in sericulture (silk-farming) in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

, Italy. It was founded in 1871 by a decree of Vittorio Emanuele II. The actual founder was Enrico Verson
Enrico Verson
Enrico Verson was an Italian entomologist,A physician, Verson worked initially at the experimental station of Gorigia before founding the first research station on the silkworm in the world, the Stazione Bacologica Sperimentale in 1871...

. It is a section of the Institute for Experimental Agrarian Zoology of Florence. The current director is Dr. Luciano Cappellozza and the Institute building is owned by the Provincial Administration of Padua, which is planning a museum with live collections of insects. This will include exhibitions on sericulture, apiculture and a general display of Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

. The sericultural part will show the silk collections of the Section as well as old tools and machines used for the rearing of the silkworm and the reeling of the cocoon.

The institute is involved in scientific projects on sericulture and moriculture, and contributes to the conservation of two germplasm banks of ca. 50 varieties of Morus
Mulberry
Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....

 spp. and ca. 120 strains of Bombyx mori
Bombyx mori
The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the domesticated silkmoth, Bombyx mori . It is an economically important insect, being a primary producer of silk...

. The institution owns a mulberry field, also used for experiments, that provides the leaves necessary for the rearing and breeding of the various Bombyx strains.
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