Antonio Berlese

Who was Antonio Berlese?

Antonio Berlese was an Italian entomologist.

Berlese worked on pest insects notably of fruit trees. He published over 300 articles and a book Gli insetti loro organizzazione, sviluppo, abitudini e rapporti con l’uomo; also a series entitled Acari, Myriapoda et Scorpiones hucusque in Italie reperta which appeared in 101 numbers between 1882 et 1903 and which contained over 1,000 figures by Berlese himself. He was a specialist in Hemiptera Coccoidea.

With his brother, Augusto Napoleone Berlese, a plant disease specialist, he founded the Revista di Patologia vegetale in 1892. In 1903 he founded the review Redia, which he edited until his death. This publication promoted zoological studies in agriculture, forestry, and in urban contexts, with an emphasis on entomology, acarology and nematology. The aim was to increase taxonomic knowledge of groups with pest species.

Berlese invented the Berlese funnel, a device for extracting soil insects and other micro fauna from leaf litter, which is still very widely used. The illustration shows how it works: a funnel contains the soil or litter, and a heat source such as an electric lamp heats the litter.