In Honor of a. Semenov Tian-Shansky

Abstract

In this current year the distinguished Russian entomologist, A. Scmenov Tian-Shansky, observes his seventieth birthday and the fiftieth anniversary of his scientific work. He was born on June 21st (9), 1866, in St. Petersburg. His father, Peter P. Semenov, was a statesman, a geographer, an art connoisseur, and a scientist of wide erudition. He took an active part in governmental affairs, was one of the participants of the Commission which was responsible for the preparation of the legal act liberating the serfs in 1861, and became in the course of his political career a senator and a member of the Council of the Empire. In recognition of his geographical explorations in the mountains of Central Asia the name of Tian-Shansky was added to his family name by imperial decree. His son, Andrew Semenov Tian-Shansky, inherited a keen love for nature and an acute scientific mind from his illustrious father. When he was still a student at the University of St. Petersburg he was awarded the silver medal of the Imperial Geographical Society for his studies of entomological material collected during the expeditions of Przewalsky and Potanin. Since his early years A. Semenov Tian-Shansky has been particularly interested in Coleoptera. He collected beetles in various parts of European and Asiatic Russia conducting some of the explorations jointly with his friend and fellow entomologist, Alexander Jakovlev. Together with his father he made a profitable journey to Turkestan in the region of Samarkand and adjacent mountains. The Caucasus Crimea and a number of localities along the Volga were explored by Semenov not only from the point of view of coleopterology but also from broader faunistic aspects. In fact observations in ornithology carried out by Semenov for a number of years contributed considerably to the knowledge of the Russian avifauna. Throughout the fifty years of his scientific activity Semenov made a thorough research of the faunistic characteristics of Central Asia based on the coleopterological material secured by the expeditions of a number of Russian explorers: Przewalsky, Potanin, Grum-Grzhimailo, Grombczevsky, Pevtzov, Roborvsky, Kozlov, Berezovsky, Komarov, Putjata, Novicky, Avinoff, A. Jacobson, Kiritshenko, Zarudny and others.