Grigory Yefimovich Grum-Grshimailo (, 1860–1936) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

best known for his expeditions to

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

( Pamir,

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

, Tianshan,

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, and Kukunor), western

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and

Tuva Tuva (; ) or Tyva (; ), officially the Republic of Tyva,; , is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Federal subjects of Russia, federal sub ...

, and the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

. In literature his name is sometimes spelled as Grigor Efimowitsch Grumm-Grzhimailo or Grigory Yefimovich Grumm-Grzhimaylo.

Life and work

Born in St. Petersburg, his early interest was in the

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

problem in the vineyards of N. Y. Danilevsky. He wrote his first scientific work at the age of 21 on some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

of the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

(1882, vol. 8 of the ''Proceedings of the Russian Entomological Society''). He was associated with Professor M. N. Bogdanov at the St. Petersburg Museum and contributed many of his own collections to it. He also studied the collections of the museum that had been made by

Nikolai Przhevalsky Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (or Prjevalsky;; , . – ) was a Russian geographer and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia. Although he never reached his ultimate goal, the city of Lhasa in Tibet, he still travelled through regio ...

, Grigory Potanin, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, and other explorers of Central Asia. From 1882, Grum-Grshimailo studied Lepidoptera from the

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

Podolia Governorate Podolia Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It bordered Volhynian Governorate to the north, Kiev Governorate to the east, Kherson Governorate to the southeast, Bessar ...

, Crimea, and the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

and got interested in

zoogeography Zoogeography is the branch of the science of biogeography that is concerned with geographic distribution (present and past) of animal species. As a multifaceted field of study, zoogeography incorporates methods of molecular biology, genetics, mo ...

. While collecting near

Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titula ...

, he met the German collector Rückbeil. He also met the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich Romanov who suggested that he should publish his work. He also promised his support for an expedition to the Pamirs. In 1884, he started his first Pamir expedition on which he visited the Alai Mountains, ascending the Trans-Alai range via Pass Tersagarsky to reach the upper Muksu River to reach Fedchenko's glacier. He visited Lake Karakul and returned. He collected 12,000 specimens, thirty of which were new to science. Spurred by the interest to his work, he made a second expedition in 1885 visiting Karateghin, Darvaz, Bukhara Khanate, Ghissar, Kulyab, Beldzhuan, Shakhrisiabz, Karshi, Guzara, Shirabad, Kabadian, and Kurgan-Tyube. This time he collected 20,000 specimens of insects. His third expedition was in 1886 along the Kara-Darya, via Pass Kugart, then up along the Naryn valley to the Narynsky Fortress (now the town of Naryn), and from there to the south toward At-Bashi and further to the southwest along the broad valley of At-Bashi River, by the At-Bashi Mt. Range, along the Great Silk Route to Tash Rabat and

Chatyr-Köl Chatyr-Köl (, ) is an endorheic alpine lake in the Tian Shan mountains in At-Bashy District of Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan; it lies in the lower part of Chatyr-Köl Depression near the Torugart Pass border crossing into China. The name of the lak ...

. They went until

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

and then via Pass Irkeshtam and back to

Osh Osh is a city in Kyrgyzstan. Osh or OSH may also refer to: * Osh (food), in Tajik and Uzbek cuisines * Osh (singer) (born 1995), English singer and rapper * OSH, the IATA code for Wittman Regional Airport near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States ...

. Expeditions conducted with his younger brother Lieutenant M. E. Grum-Grshimailo between 1889 and 1890 were intended to bring back specimens of

Przewalski's horse Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered wild horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after t ...

. After capturing two wild horses in the vicinity of Gushen (44° N 90°30' E), and no longer afraid that shooting would frighten the animals away they managed to collect 1,048 bird specimens. They traveled 8,600 km. He made several more expeditions in the succeeding years but he later lost much of the early interest in entomology owing in part to a conflict with the sponsor of his expeditions. A term was that the materials he collected were to go to Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhaylovich Romanov, but he needed a private collection. He was accused of embezzling material and financial difficulties made him sell part of his collection to

Henry John Elwes Henry John Elwes, Royal Society, FRS (16 May 1846 – 26 November 1922) was a British botanist, entomologist, author, Lepidoptera, lepidopterist, Collecting, collector and traveller who became renowned for collecting specimens of lilies during ...

. He was awarded the Constantine Medal in 1907 by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.

Publications

;Partial list *Novae species et varietas Rhopalocerum ''Horae Societatis Entomologicae Rossicae'', 22: 303-307 (1888) *''Le Pamir et la faune lépidoptérologique. Mém. lépidop''. Ed. N. M. Romanoff 4 volumes 576 p., 21 pl. (1890) *Lepidoptera nova in Asia centrali novissime lecta et descripta ''Horae Societatis Entomologicae Rossicae''. 25 (3-4): 445-465 (1891) *Lepidoptera nova vei parum cognita regionis palaearcticae. I. Ezhegod. ''Zool Mus. Imp. Akad. Nauk'', ''Ann. Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp.'' Sc. Volume 4 (1899) (in Russian). *Lepidoptera nova vel parum cognita regionis palaearcticae. II. Ezhegod. Zool. ''Mus. Imp. Acad. Nauk'', ''Ann Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sc''., Volume 7 (1902) (in Russian)

Collections

Many of Grum-Grshimailo's specimens of Lepidoptera and

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

are in the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg. Other specimens were sold to H.J. Elwes.

Notes

References

*Grieshuber, J. & Churkin, S. (2003a): Grum-Grshimailo's journey through China with notes on some ''Colias'' taxa. ''Helios'' IV: 224-243, 1 map.

External links

LepidopterologyCollection details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grum-Grshimailo, Grigory People from Saint Petersburg 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Geographers from the Russian Empire Scientists from Saint Petersburg 1860 births 1936 deaths Lepidopterists from the Russian Empire Soviet entomologists Soviet lepidopterists Russian scientists