The present stage of the agro-industrial complex development is characterized by
the growing influence of economic activity on the agricultural biocoenosis and on the
biosphere in general. Along with it, the problems of insect population ecology, the
forecasting of their mass reproduction outbreaks, foundation of ecologically oriented,
environmental and resource-saving technologies of plant protection are paid the special
attention to. The vast majority of these issues are successfully solved by the Ukrainian
research establishments and educational institutions [13, 16].
The Department of Zoology and Entomology named after B.M. Lytvynov is
the flagship of domestic agricultural entomology. The Department of Zoology and
Entomology was founded in 1840 after joining the Marimont Institute of Agricultural
Management of the Warsaw Forestry School. At that distant time, the foundations of
educational, methodological and scientific works were laid by the well-known
Professors V.M. Yastrzhembskyi and L.F. Bogutskyi; the Master of Zoology,
Professor A.D. Karpynskyi, who headed the Department from 1840 to 1871; the Ph.
D. in Natural Sciences Ye.M. Vasyliev (a well-known scientist, an expert on sugar beet
pests), who headed the department from 1876 to 1890 [11, 13, 16].
The period from 1890-1905 was marked by a sharp decrease in the number of
students after their riots in 1891-1892. It was connected with the difficult internal
situation in Russia, the prolonged severe drought, poor harvest and the terrible famine
of 1891-1892 (35 million people were starving in Russia at that time). But, despite the
difficulties, the government, following the results of the commission, agreed to
maintain the higher agricultural education in Russia [1, 2].
From 1905 to 1930, the Department was headed by the Professor Ivan
Kostiantynovych Tarnani, a talented teacher, naturalist and popularizer, student's
favorite. In 1914, after moving to Kharkiv together with the institute, he improved the
teaching of Zoology and Entomology, and conducted the researches on harmful
organisms in Kharkiv province.
From 1930 to 1956, the Department was headed by the Professor, Doctor of
Agricultural Sciences V.G. Averin, and a well-known encyclopedic scientist, who
headed the Plant Protection Department of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture
of Ukraine. He devoted 26 years to scientific researches on the problems of plant
protection, and for the first time, in the 1930s of the last century, he substantiated the
necessity of a comparative and ecological approach while studying the population
dynamics in Zoology and Entomology. He has trained three Philosophy Doctors [7, 8,
11, 12, 14, 15].
From 1956 to 1971, the Department was headed by the Doctor of Biological
Sciences, Professor O.O. Mihulin, an outstanding scientist in the field of Theoretical
and Applied Zoology and Agricultural Entomology. For several years O.O. Mihulin
has been in charge of the Central (Republican) Plant Protection Station. Under his
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