Vladyslav Monchenko, an outstanding zoologist and his contribution to the development of zoological collections

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the memory of the outstanding scientist-zoologist Vladyslav Ivanovich Monchenko. A brief outline of the main events of the scientist’s activity is given. V. I. Monchenko’s scientific achievements include 191 works published during his lifetime (among them 8 monographs and textbooks), almost 50 newly described taxa of copepod crustaceans and their parasites, and a unique collection of Copepoda. Fundamental generalisations carried out by V. I. Monchenko are recognised by scientists far beyond Ukraine. Those include the life cycles of copepods and the mechanisms of their regulation, as well as the analysis of the morphological evolution of this group, including experiments on the presence of cryptic species among cyclopods. His contribution to the biogeography of the Ponto–Caspian Basin are also important. The scientist’s contribution to the development of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) NAS of Ukraine is shown. Among the valuable collection specimens transferred by V. Monchenko to the NMNH are various sponges, sea anemones, and ascidians from the Southern Ocean, sailfish and jellyfish from the Pacific Ocean, crustaceans (Brucerolis bromleyana) and corals from the coast of New Zealand. The collection also includes 39 specimens of exotic gastropod and bivalve molluscs, collected in various parts of the Indian and Atlantic oceans and in bodies of fresh water of oceanic islands, as well as a skeleton of a female Cape petrel (Daption capense). The fish exhibition includes a mounted Copper shark (Carcharhinus brachyurus) caught by a researcher in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan, and a wet specimen of a pilot fish (Naucrates ductor) from the Pacific Ocean. Sixty specimens of 17 species of fish from the Pacific Ocean and the Black Sea are stored in the scientific collection of the NMNH. The scientist received high recognition for his research and contributions into the development of science and scientific schools, he was elected a corresponding member of the NAS of Ukraine (2000), an academician of the NAS of Ukraine (2003), became a laureate of the D. K. Zabolotny Prize (1975) and the State Prize of Ukraine in the Field of Science and Technology (2007), and received the honorary title ‘Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine.’

Keywords

• fauna
• zoology
• expeditions
• natural history collections
• vladyslav monchenko