Alexandr Mikhailovich Orlov The Cycling Entomologist (1964—2024)

Alexandr (Sasha) Orlov was born on 16 December 1964 in Kiev, Ukraine, and spent most of his early years in Odesa, Ukraine. Since his earliest childhood Sasha demonstrated an inordinate fondness for nature and animals, particularly arthropods. In his early school years, Sasha already had his own microscope and a modest collection of local insects, perfectly mounted, labelled and identified using the available entomological literature. His real research work started when he was in Grade 4 and met Prof. Semen Ya. Blinstein of Zoological Museum of the Odesa I.I. Mechnykov National University. During his school years, Sasha went on hikes around Odesa and the Odesa Region, studying and collecting insects, focusing on beetles (Coleoptera), particularly the ground beetles (Carabidae) and rove beetles (Staphylinidae), and butterflies and moth (Lepidoptera). Orlov studied geology at the Odesa I.I. Mechnykov National University, and at the same time was working at the Zoological Museum, undertaking numerous trips on his bicycle and surveying the beetle fauna of the riparian zones of the estuaries (limans) around Odesa. After graduating, he continued to combine a handwork, cycling, tourism and entomological studies, also after his moving to Israel in 2001. Since then, he traversed Israel many times in different directions, riding a bicycle in a company of his faithful dog Kubik, and accumulated a collection of ca. 3500 specimens (mainly beetles), which he finally generously donated to the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University. Sasha passed away untimely in Jerusalem on 13 July 2024 succumbing to cancer.