Investigation and identification of some insect pests of Niavaran Museum Palace

Museums are considered to be the most important sources of cultural, scientific, political, economic, and historical information in the communities for the preservation of historical, natural and national and ethnic cultures, and therefore preserving them is of great importance. The destruction and corruption of museum objects can be due to physical, chemical, biological or external factors that have a damaging effect on these objects. In the meantime, insect storage is of great importance. Unfortunately, if historical objects are infected by pest infestations, they have no chance of being created again, and any damage is irreversible to them. Therefore, the study of damaging factors on properties and items in museums is an integral part of the museum pest. The present study was conducted at the Niavaran Palace Complex, Tehran, Iran, with the aim of identifying pests which damage the museum collections. The insect pests in the three buildings including the private library of Farah Pahlavi, Ahmad Shahi Pavilion and the Sahebqaraniyeh Palace, were studied. Insects were carefully collected from all items in the buildings as well as from the ground using brushes, aspirators, sticky cards and pheromone traps.  The collected insects were transferred to the Entomology Laboratory of Islamic Azad University, Varamin- Pishva branch. Most of the samples belonged to the beetles of the families Bostrychidae, Dermestidae and Ptinidae, and the family of Tineidae. Beetles of Gibbium psylloides, Bostrychidae family and Tineola bisseliella butterflies were first reported from the Niavaran palace complex.