Virtual collection of butterflies of Ivan Verhratskyi

The article examines the history of the formation of Ivan Verkhratskyi's collection of butterflies - from the first collections to the transfer to the funds of the State Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and digitization. In total, as of now, the collection includes 5,278 units of butterflies collected at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The work uses generally accepted methods of digitizing naturalistic collections. Digitized samples have been included in the database of the web resource of the State Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine - Data Center «Biodiversity of Ukraine». As part of the project, 2,060 specimens belonging to 247 species from 18 families of Lepidoptera were digitized. As a result, the availability of digital data of the author's collection for various target audiences is ensured. The priorities of the "Cultural Heritage" competition program were implemented in two directions, namely: digitization of museum objects and digitization of intangible cultural heritage. The Lepidoptera collection of Ivan Verkhratskyі can be used for long-term monitoring of the state of the diversity of butterflies in the region, chronological analysis of changes in their species composition and distribution, as well as the study of individual imago variability and the accumulation of data on rare protected species. In addition, the digitized collection of butterflies has an important aesthetic and cognitive value.