Corals and other Cnidarians

Most of the exposed corals are listed in Annex II of the CITES Convention and were confiscated by the Customs of the Republic of Lithuania. Others are from the old VU collections. 

Mollusca

J. G. A. Forster participated in the British captain J. Cook’s second voyage from 1772 to 1775 and collected some shells near Australia. Other shells were donated by the Lithuanian hetman M. Ogiński, and other famous people such as J. Wichert, K. Gorski, E. Gimbutienė and others. 

Spiders and Insects

The European diadem spider and different Tarantula donated by E. Kazlauskas are on display, while the museum funds also hold a variety of local spiders. The abundant collections of spiders, butterflies and moths, beetles, caddis flies, true flies, sawflies, wasps, ants, bees, greenflies and other insects have been built up since the 18th century by VU scientists: B. Ogijewicz, K. Petrusiewicz, S. Podėnas, J. Prüffer, M. Racięcka, R. Rakauskas, V. Rėlys and many others.

The insect exposition contains 250 species of exotic butterflies and beetles, donated by A. M. Račkus and supplemented by B. Houwalt, V. Seichert, R. Kazlauskas. The visitors have a chance to behold domesticated silk moths and the largest moths in the world Thysania agrippina and Attacus atlas, the longest beetle in America Dynastes hercules and the biggest beetle in Europe – Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus).

Other Invertebrates 

Other Invertebrates cause fear (parasitic worms, centipedes, scorpions) or wonder (barnacles, lobsters and crayfishes), interest (sea stars and urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers) or surprise (moss animals, etc.). 

Insects in Amber

Since 1997 the museum has unique pieces of amber with Holotypes of trapped flies from the Baltic sea in Holocene. Professor S. Podėnas was the founder of the collection.