of Cotton) and at the research stations of different departmental subordination were
comparatively few departments of plant protection, and in some of them – only the
positions of entomologists as a part of the departments of agricultural technology or
departments of breeding.
In the early 30s of the XXth century, continuing to explore the fauna of mites in
Ukraine, V.M. Voloshchuk described 26 species of mites, the pests of grain and the
products of its processing in the repositories of the Crimea.
O.O. Hrossheim devoted many years to the detailed study of insects, the pests
of fruit crops during his work at the Mliiv Garden and Horticulture Research station.
In 1930 he published his original theoretical work “About Massive Reproduction of
Pests”. This work was praised by the well-known entomologists: the professors
O.G. Lebediev, F.O. Zaitsev, V.P. Pospielov and M.M. Troitskyi. O.O. Hrossheim
regarded the question about the dynamics of insects in space and time as one of the
central problems of the planetary life of the biosphere (according to V.I. Vernadskyi).
The original researches on the ecology of insects in the early 30s were carried out at
the Department of Terrestrial Animals of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine under the direction of Professor O.G. Lebediev. In his paper
“About the Importance of Harmful Insects Predictions”, published in 1930, he raised
the problem of the occurrence of rhythmic fluctuations in the number of insects, their
dependence on cosmic factors or on meteorological influences, which operate,
however, differently in different places [3, 5].
In 1937 O.G. Lebediev published an article “Electromagnetic field as a forming
factor in the life of plants and animals”. It contained a hypothesis about the influence
of electromagnetic fields on insects, in particular their morphology and ecology. The
research workers of the Institute of Zoology S.P. Ivanov, M.M. Levit and
E.M. Yemchuk fulfilled the fundamental theoretical generalizations on the problem of
the dynamics of insect populations and in 1938 they published the monograph “Mass
Reproduction of Animals and the Theory of Gradation”, edited by the Academician
I.I. Shmalhauzen. It was the first work in Ukraine and in the USSR, in which 325
literary sources of domestic and 686 sources of foreign ecologists on this problem were
summed up [3, 5].
In 1939 the Academy of Sciences of the UkrSSR joined the research on Applied
Entomology. Three laboratories were created at the Institute of Zoology, and such
well-known
scientists
as
V.P. Pospielov,
S.V. Zvierezomb-Zubovskyi
and
M.A. Telenh were invited to head it.
Before the war, the science of plant protection gained the significant
development. The pest accounting service was created, the annual reviews of their
spreading and forecasts of the expected emergence for the next years were made,
which provided a scientific basis for the planning of works [13, 16].
- 1288 -