Rhineland collection

Beetle science has a long trandition in Rhineland. The first work in beetles of Rhineland was published 250 years ago. Since then, numerous papers followed. With the foundation of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft rheinischer Koleopterologen" in 1927 it was initiated to build up a joint Rhineland collection of its members. This collections is housed today in the Museum Koenig, including the former Rhineland collection of the Museum, the collection of the Museum Wupperthal, and numerous smaller private collections (e.g. Klaus Koch). The Arbeitsgemeinschaft rheinischer Koleopterologen meets up regularly furing winter months for curating and unifying those diverse collections.

Currently the Museum runs in collaboration with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft rheinischer Koleopterologen a project for the digitisation of the label data of the entire collection, for future use in faunistics, nature conservation and landscape management.