Vladimir Vasilevich Zherikhin (Russian: Владимир Васильевич Жерихин), of the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, was one of the world's leading paleoentomologists and coleopterists. He worked on the palaeontology of the Coleoptera (beetles) and of insects in general, and on the taxonomy of the weevils (Curculionoidea).

Zherikhin was one of the lead authors of the multi-authored monograph "Historical development of the class Insecta" edited by his long term collaborators Boris Borisovitsch Rohdendorf

Boris Borisovitsch Rohdendorf

Boris Borissovich Rohdendorf was a Russianentomologist and curator at the Zoological Museum at the University of Moscow. He attained the position of head of the Laboratory of Arthropods, Paleontological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow...

 and Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn, as well as the much expanded English language "History of Insects", to which he contributed chapters on the patterns of insect burial (taphonomy

Taphonomy

Taphonomy is the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized . The term taphonomy was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the...

), past terrestrial ecology, trace fossils, and on thrips

Thrips

Thrips are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings . Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, thunderblights, and corn lice...

 and praying mantids

Mantis

Mantis is the common name of any insect in the order Mantodea, also commonly known as praying mantises. The word itself means "prophet" in Latin and Greek...

.

From 1970 Zherikhin organized field trips to collect fossil insects, and particularly those in Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 and Palaeogene fossil resins

Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...

, to northernmost Siberia (Taimyr Peninsula), the Russian Far East

Russian Far East

Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...

, and the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. The objective was to explore changes in the insect world around the Meso-Cenozoic boundary..

One of Zherikhin's most important collaborations was with his former student Vadim Gratshev

Vadim G. Gratshev

Vadim G. Gratshev was one of world leading experts in palaeoentomology. Vadim graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 1987 and taught biology at a high school for three years until 1989...

. Together they produced numerous papers, most famously their seminal phylogenetic study on the hind wing venation of the weevils, published in a volume celebrating the 80th birthday of Roy Crowson

Roy Crowson

Roy Albert Crowson was a British biologist who specialized in the taxonomy of beetles.He lectured at the Zoology Department of the University of Glasgow from 1949. He collected beetles and their larvae from around the world and studied the relationships between them...

.