The collection of tropical madrepores (about 130 specimens) was purchased by the Museum in 1950 from the Comparative Anatomy Department of the University of Naples: it was set up with finds collected in the Red Sea. Examples of the genera Fungia, Aeropora, Porites, Maeandrina, Pavona and Cladocora belonging to the collection of the Red Sea and Astroides calicularis from the Gulf of Naples are noteworthy. The Vettor Pisani collection was established between 1882 and 1885 by Gaetano Chierchia, an officer of the Navy, following some scientific expeditions, carried out with the Vettor Pisani pyro-corvette, to which technicians trained by the Zoological Station of Naples collaborated for the collections of get ready.
The Malacological Collection was organized by It includes many specimens of Mediterranean and exotic species. It is divided into two sections: the first, which shows all the species of the Mediterranean malacofauna, the second, which represents the main families of all classes of molluscs. Currently the collection, although impoverished due to the stealing that occurred in the Museum during the Second World War, remains an exhaustive review of the living species in the Mediterranean Basin. Among the most interesting specimens existing today we must mention that of Patella ferruginea coming from the Gulf of Naples, where it once lived and where it currently seems to be extinct.
Photo: Patella ferruginea (Gmelin, 1791) from the Gulf of Naples.