The Archivio Moncharmont: a Pioneering Biodiversity Assessment in the Gulf of Naples (Italy) Maria Cristina Gambi Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy, Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Villa Dohrn, Ischia Punta S. Pietro, 80077 Ischia (Napoli), Italy Isabella D’Ambra 1 Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy Graziano Fiorito Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy Vincenzo Saggiomo Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy ABSTRACT - In these last years the importance of marine species check-lists and floristic and faunal data bases has been strongly re-evaluated, as this information represents a useful tool to assess the biodiversity of geographic areas or single habitats, in relation to biogeographic and ecological comparisons of the past and actual environmental conditions, and to conservation problems of the marine biota In the present contribution we wish to present a synthesis of the “Moncharmont Project,” a program conducted in collaboration with the Historical Archives of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, and devoted to the acquisition, data base construction, and a first evaluation of the Archivio of Prof. Ugo Moncharmont (1913-2000). Prof. Moncharmont has been for many years collaborator and consultant for the Zoology Department at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, exerting a thorough supervision of the marine specimens collected for the Museum and for the zoological and biological work of the Institute’s scientist hosts. 1 Actual adress: Santa Maria a Cubito 687, 80145 Napoli, Italy.