?Insects meet Humans. The Pietro Castellano’s Entomological Collection

I suppose you are an entomologist?—I said with a note of interrogation.
-Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name! A society may call itself an Entomological Society, but the man who arrogates such a broad title as that to himself, in the present state of science, is a pretender, sir, a dilettante, an impostor! No man can be truly called an entomologist, sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.
The poet at the breakfast table (Chapter II) by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Indeed, insects and humans encounter everytime and everywhere, and these meetings are most of the time unlived with full enthusiasm.
Such as bedbugs, breaking-in the house and squeezing everywhere leaving even unpleasure odors; or those annoying flyes, which never give us peace; or mosquitoes, making summer nights unliveable; or beetles, escaping continuosly from the drainages at night; or silverfishes, wriggling on our sills. And, again, those undesired guests which seem glad to eat our beautiful flowers, or the ones that silently ruin our freshly grown potatoes, tomatoes and onions in the garden.
Nevertheless, whether carefully observed, maybe equipped with a lens, they might be also appear fascinating, thanks to their colours, shapes and particular habits, so much so that several scientists and researchers have already been completely attracted.
For instance, in some parts of the southern hempisphere, especially in tropical areas, there live spectacular kind of insects, different in shapes, sizes and colours. Some of them has been brought here in this exhibition.
They are dwellers of distant forests, telling us about their exotic places and strange living habits, and, mostly, helping us to look at our small, colorful and humble daily-mates in a different way. 
Besides those cases when an inadequate conservation required a relocation of the insects into safer conditions, the original containers have been deliberately kept, either concerning acquisitions and preparations from third parties or for the boxes directly made by Castellano himself.
The major part of this material was in fact purchased by him over the years from specialized companies operating in the field.
Most of the exposed samples belong to the order of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera.
However, there are also some examples from the order of Orthoptera, Phasmatodea, Megaloptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera.   
Pietro Castellano was born in Torre Pellice on July, 6th 1923. He died in Torino on December, 5th 2010, when he was 86 years old.
After his mother’s death during the Second World War, he went to live with his aunt. His education ends at elemantary school, working after as warehouseman for the rest of his life. However, for his entire life he always developed particular interests in learning throughout many different ways, including collecting shells, insects, books and other things, as well as getting started with photography and science, such as astronomy. Unmarried, with an enthusiastic and jovial temper, and not particularly attracted in journeys as typical “bogianen”*, he does not physically travel to pursuit his hobbies. Rather, he begins travelling all around the world through his fervid and endless fantasy, which was continuously and extesively stimulted by huge ammounts of documentaries and videotapes. Pietro’s family was practically only constituted of all his books progressively filling his house and turning it in an almost unreachable place to strangers. Although jealous of his collections, he would have always wanted others to see and appreciate them, in order to share his passions and his enthusiasm for the beautiful things in the world.
This latter point is hence the main reason Pietro Castellano’s entomological collection begins to travel, carrying a message of beauty to anyone who is attracted, and why not, catching your fantasy and transforming it into a scientific interest for an amazing world, the world of insects.