Chapter 1
Overview: History of Agricultural
Entomology and Biological Pest Control
in Iran
Javad Karimi and Shokoofeh Kamali
1.1 Pioneer Entomologists
Faunistic studies of insects started from the mid-eighteenth century in Iran and the
beginning of the nineteenth century in Czarist Russia and some of the European
countries. The specimens gathered and identified by entomologists in that period are
still being kept in some of the international museums, particularly in those of Saint
Petersburg, Paris, and London. At that time, entomology was not common in Iran
and up to 150 years later, it remained unknown. In 1919, Jalal Afshar (Urmia 1894–
Tehran 1974) returned to Iran upon completion of his higher education and started
both teaching and researching on entomology and zoology at Pasteur Institute of Iran
(Abivardi 2001) (Fig. 1.1).
After a while, he started to study plant pests in the Ministry of Public Welfare
currently known as the Ministry of Agriculture, and at the same time teaching
entomology at Falahat School (now known as College of Agriculture). In 1923, he
founded a small department called “Local Pests Diagnosis and Control center”. This
is considered as the official beginning of research and executive work of identifying,
collecting and making collections of the Insects in Iran by Iranians themselves.
During this period, Jalal Afshar established an insect museum at the College of
Agriculture in Karaj, which is now known as the Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum
(JAZM) (https://utcan.ut.ac.ir/en/page/3135/museum) and is considered as an
invaluable collection (Fig. 1.2). From 1926 onwards, he began teaching zoology,
J. Karimi (*)
Department of Plant Protection, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
e-mail: jkb@um.ac.ir
S. Kamali
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, Iran
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Karimi, H. Madadi (eds.), Biological Control of Insect and Mite Pests in Iran,
Progress in Biological Control 18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63990-7_1
1
Overview: History of Agricultural
Entomology and Biological Pest Control
in Iran
Javad Karimi and Shokoofeh Kamali
1.1 Pioneer Entomologists
Faunistic studies of insects started from the mid-eighteenth century in Iran and the
beginning of the nineteenth century in Czarist Russia and some of the European
countries. The specimens gathered and identified by entomologists in that period are
still being kept in some of the international museums, particularly in those of Saint
Petersburg, Paris, and London. At that time, entomology was not common in Iran
and up to 150 years later, it remained unknown. In 1919, Jalal Afshar (Urmia 1894–
Tehran 1974) returned to Iran upon completion of his higher education and started
both teaching and researching on entomology and zoology at Pasteur Institute of Iran
(Abivardi 2001) (Fig. 1.1).
After a while, he started to study plant pests in the Ministry of Public Welfare
currently known as the Ministry of Agriculture, and at the same time teaching
entomology at Falahat School (now known as College of Agriculture). In 1923, he
founded a small department called “Local Pests Diagnosis and Control center”. This
is considered as the official beginning of research and executive work of identifying,
collecting and making collections of the Insects in Iran by Iranians themselves.
During this period, Jalal Afshar established an insect museum at the College of
Agriculture in Karaj, which is now known as the Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum
(JAZM) (https://utcan.ut.ac.ir/en/page/3135/museum) and is considered as an
invaluable collection (Fig. 1.2). From 1926 onwards, he began teaching zoology,
J. Karimi (*)
Department of Plant Protection, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
e-mail: jkb@um.ac.ir
S. Kamali
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, Iran
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Karimi, H. Madadi (eds.), Biological Control of Insect and Mite Pests in Iran,
Progress in Biological Control 18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63990-7_1
1