Timeline of entomology - prior to 1800
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[edit] Prehistory
13,000 B.C.
The earliest evidence of man's interest in insects is from rock paintings. The insects depicted are bees.
1800-1700BC.
Bees were significant in other early civilisations, for instance at Malia Crete,where jewellery depicts two golden bees holding a drop of honey.
[edit] Egypt, Greek and Roman empires
Scarab Beetle painted on wall of Rameses IX tomb c. 1000 BC.
Bee-keeping was particularly well developed in Egypt and was discussed by the Roman writers Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro and Columella.
620–560 B.C. Aesop's Fables relate stories of grasshoppers, ants and other insects.
[edit] 10th–15th century
- Guido of Ravenna does some very early work on insects.
- Vincent of Beauvais Speculum Naturale treats insects, especially bees.
1250(circa)
- The first documented forensic entomology case is reported by Song Ci in the medico-legal text book Xiyuan Jilu. He describes the case of a stabbing near a rice field.
[edit] 15th century
Carlo Crivelli draws an association between flies and death in a painting of the Madonna and Child.
[edit] 16th century
- Albrecht Dürer paints a stag-beetle.
- Zoologist Conrad Gesner publishes the first volume of Historia animalium or History of Animals. The work includes some mention of insects.
[edit] 17th century
- Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Animalibus insectis libri septem, cum singulorum iconibus AD vivum expressis published. This work was devoted to the insects and some other invertebrates.
- Jacob Hoefnagel Diversae Insectarum Volatium icones ad vivum accuratissimè depictae per celeberrimum pictorem. (Amsterdam), Nicolao Ioannis Visscher.
- Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum by Thomas Muffet with Edward Wotton, Conrad Gesner and Thomas Penny posthumously published — Contains first image of butterfly from North America, a woodblock print from a painting by John White in 1587.
- Birth of a girl, later to be an entomologist, Eleanor Glanville.
1662 — (Between 1662 and 1667)
- Jan Goedart publishes Metamorphosis and historia naturalis illustrating, by copper plate engravings, the metamorphosis of various insects.
1664 Robert Hooke publishes Micrographia .
- Microscopist Jan Swammerdam publishes History of Insects correctly describing the reproductive organs of insects and metamorphosis.
- The anatomist Marcello Malpighi publishes a treatise on the structure and development of the silkworm, the first description of the anatomy of an invertebrate.
- Jan Goedart Wikisite in French publishes De Insectis, in methodum redactus, cum notularum additione. Opera M.Lister..item appendicis ad historiam Animalium Angliae
- Anton Leeuenhoek publishes Arcana Naturae Detecta.
- The Royal Society of England publishes the studies of the Italian anatomist Marcaello Malpighi the discoverer of the insect excretory organs known as Malpighian tubules.
- Antonio Vallisneri’s Dialoghi will sopra the curiosa Origine di molti Insetti, in English, "Dialogues on the curious origin of several insects", in which he, with Francesco Redi and Malpighi, contradicts the theory of spontaneous generation of maggots.
[edit] 18th century
The development of entomology in the 18th century
In the 18th century three kinds of entomological text appeared. Firstly there were illustrative works — showy insects often beautifully coloured whose purpose was sensual. An example is afforded by Maria von Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamenis (1705).
Secondly were descriptive and systematic (classificatory) works usually confined to what are now known as the Insecta.Of the second kind Carl von Linne's Systema Naturae published in 1758 at Uppsala stands proud. In this work the binomial system was finally settled on.
Thirdly were works on developmental biology (life cycles), internal anatomy, physiology and so on. These often covered other invertebrate groups. An example is René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur's Memoires pour Servir a L’Historie des Insectes.
[edit] 1700–1750
- James Petiver publishes a celebrated butterfly work Lepidoptera of the Philippine Islands.
- 1702 is also the date of the world's oldest pinned insect specimen; a Bath White butterfly preserved in Oxford University Museum.
- Maria Sybilla Merian Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamenis (Transformations of the insects of Surinam) published by G. Valck in Amsterdam. It is a masterpiece of both art and science and Maria Merian, "the mother of entomology", was the first to record the full life cycle of many species of butterflies and moths.
- John Ray publishes Methodus Insectorum.
- John Ray publishes Historia insectorum in English, Study of Insects. This is the first attempt at a systematic classification of insect species.
- Francois Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire writes on the use of spider silk as a textile. This was the first such research.
- James Petiver publishes a book on British butterflies entitled Papilionum Brittaniae.
- Eleazar Albin publishes A Natural History of English Insects.
- Charles de Geer born
- Maria Sybilla Merian publishes Die Europaische Insecten
- Moses Harris (1730–1788) born in England. Harris was a pioneer of the use of wing venation in insect systematics.
- Mark Catesby publishes part one of The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.
- Scientist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur publishes the first Mémoires pour Servir à L’Histoire des Insectes in English, "Memoirs Serving as a Natural History of Insects". This is a founding work of entomology, and one of the most important of all zoological works of the 18th century.
- Microscopist Jan Swammerdam's Biblia naturae or "Book of Nature" is reissued. Describing his studies of insects, it is a founding work of entomology.
- Adolph Modeer born.
- Zoologist John K’Eogh publishes Zoologica Medicinalis Hibernica, in English, "Zoological Medicine in Ireland".
- Johann Christian Fabricius (1745–1808) is born. Fabricius worked on all insect orders.
- Charles Bonnet published his first work on entomology.Entitled Traité d'insectologie, it collected together his various discoveries regarding insects.
- August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof publishes Insecten-Belustigung, in English, "Insect Entertainment".
- Georg Dionysus Ehret publishes first part of Plantae et Papiliones Depictae.
- James Dutfield publishes English Moths and Butterflies.
- Benjamin Wilkes publishes English Moths and Butterflies.
- Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749–1788) commenced— 36 volumes and 8 additional volumes published after his death by Bernard Germain Étienne comte de La Ville-sur-Illon La Cépède.Until the publication of this encyclopedia it was thought that all animals were created together by God about 6,000 years ago. Not only did this 44 volume encyclopedia contain all biological knowledge of its time, it offered a different theory. 100 years before Darwin, Buffon claimed that man and ape might have a common ancestor. His work also had significant impact on ecology.
[edit] 1750–1800
- Tenth edition of Carolus Linnaeus Systema Naturae published. World explorers brought back to Europe so many exotic plant and animal specimens that chaos loomed for the 18th-century naturalists attempting to identify, classify, and communicate what they had gathered. Linnaeus made a great contribution to science by developing systems of classification to organize these processes. His principles of organization, especially his system of binomial nomenclature, provided essential tools for entomology. The tenth edition (1758–59), was chosen as the starting point for zoological nomenclature.
- First volume of Karl Alexander Clerck’s Icones Insectorum Variorum published. It is really an illustrated appendix to Systema Naturae and the first work to employ Linne's binomial system.
- Johann Christian Daniel Schreber Schreberi Novae Species Insectorvm published.
- Naturalist and engraver Pieter Lyonnet publishes a monograph on the goat-moth caterpillar, containing details and illustrations of dissections. It is one of the best illustrated books on anatomy ever produced and describes over 4,000 muscles.
- Jacob Hübner (1761–1826) born. Jacob Hübner was the first great world lepidopterist. Before Hübner it was held that there were few genera of Lepidoptera, a view he overthrew. His definitions of genera are among the best of the time and so were his classifications.
- Christiaan Sepp publishes Nederlandische Insecten, in English, "Dutch insects".
- Giovanni Antonio Scopoli publishes Entomologica Carniolica.
- Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1763–1845) born. Meigen began to work on Diptera at the age of twenty five. The first specialist in Diptera Meigen described a vast number of European species and his work on gross taxonomy laid the foundations of the present higher classification of the Order. Unlike his Swedish contemporary Carl Friedrich Fallen he based higher categories on a combination of characters not following Fabricius in using mouthpart characters alone. This new approach was controversial.
- Carl Friedrich Fallen (1764–1830) born. Johann Christian Fabricius attended Linnaeus’s lectures on natural classification. He was one of Linnaeus' most important pupils.
- Etienne Louis Geoffroy published Histoire des Insectes.
- Moses Harris publishes The Aurelian or Natural History of English Insects, namely Moths and Butterflies. This was the first book on the British Lepidoptera. Harris was a pioneer in using wing venation in insect systematics. A more modern revision did not appear until 1803.
- Voyages of the HM Bark Endeavour under Captain James Cook begin. The extensive insect collections made on the expeditions, the first to Newfoundland, the next to the South Pacific are held in theNatural History Museum in London though a few are to be found in the Natural History Museum, Dublin.
- Johann Reinhold Forster publishes A Catalogue of British Insects at Warrington, England — “This catalogue contains 1000 insects; the Swedes have near 1700, it would therefore be an honour to this country to scrutinize carefully into the various branches of Natural History, and to give the public as perfect and extensive catalogues of British Animals as possible”.
- Dru Drury, 1770–1782 Illustrations of natural history, wherein are exhibited figures of exotic insects, a three-volume work commenced at London.
- Christian Rudolph Wilhelm Wiedemann (1770–1840) born. He was a specialist in Diptera (world species).
- Johann Reinhold Forster produces first list of American insects.
- First part of Pieter Cramer's 1775–82 De Uitlandische Kapellen (Papillons Exotiques de Trois Partes de Monde published.
- Johann Christian Fabricius' Systema entomologica published.
1776 Otto Friedrich Müller published Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus.
- Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst (1777–1857) born. Wikisite in French. Gravenhorst worked mainly on Ichneumonidae.
- Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper Europaischen Schmetterlinge commenced publication.
- Justin Pierre Marie Macquart (1778–1855) born. Macquart worked mainly on Diptera describing many world species.
- The Society of Entomologists of London formed (short-lived).
- Caspar Stoll's Natuurlyke en naar 't leeven naauwkeurig gekleurde Afbeeldingen en Beschryvingen der Cicaden en Wantzen, in alle vier Waerelds Deelen Europa, Asia, Africa en America huishoudende, by een verzameld en beschreeven published.
- Pierre Françoise Marie Auguste Dejean (1780–1845) born.
- Franz Paula von Schrank Enumeratio insectorum Austriae indigenorumpublished at Vienna.
- Andreas Johann Retzius publishes Genera et species insectorum.
- Publication, in Berlin, of Carl Gustav Jablonsky and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst Natursystem aller bekannten in- und ausländischen Insecten, als eine Fortzetsung der von Büffonschen Naturgeschichte. Nach dem System des Ritters Carl von Linné bearbeitet or, in English, "Natural system of all well-known in [Europe] and foreign Insects, as a continuation of Buffon’s natural history. After the system of the honoured master, Carl von Linné". This is a superbly illustrated work on world and European Coleoptera. Jablonsky was private secretary to the Queen of Prussia.
- Johann Wilhelm Zetterstedt (1785–1874) born. Zetterstedt worked mainly on Diptera.
- Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy Entomologia Parisiensis, sive, Catalogus insectorum quae in agro Parisiensi reperiuntur ..., co-written with Étienne Louis Geoffroy,published in this year was a major contribution to systematic entomology.
- Johann Nepomuk von Laicharting Verzeichniss und Beschreibung der Tyroler-Insecten. Lists and descriptions of Tirol insects.
- Ernst Friedrich Germar born.
- Thomas Say (1787–1834) born.
- Linnean Society of London founded. The Society published many important works on insects.
- Caspar Stoll Representation des Spectres ou Phasmes, des Mantes...Sauterelles des Grillons et des Blattes published. This work contains beautiful plates of praying mantis species.
- Guillaume-Antoine Olivier Entomologie ou Histoire Naturelle des Insectes, avec leurs Caracteres Generiques et Specifiques, leur Description, leur Synonomie et leur Figure Illuminee. Coleopteres. commenced publication in Paris. The first volumes preceded Latreille's in time and the system used was a combination of Linne and Fabricius.
- Johann Wilhelm Meigen commences study of Diptera.
- Johann Jacob Roemer Genera Insectorum Linnaei et Fabricii, Iconibus Illustrata published.
- Carl Peter Thunberg Dissertatio Entomologica Novas Insectorum species sistens, cujus partem quintam. Publico examini subjicit Johannes Olai Noraeus, Uplandus. Upsaliaepublished.
- Johann Kaspar FüssliNeue Magazin für Liebhaber der Entomologie (last part 1786).
- John Curtis (1791–1862) born.
- The Dublin Society purchases the natural history collection of Nathaniel Gottfried Leske containing 2,500 species of insects from Europe and the “rest of the World”. The sale catalogue was titled Museum Leskeanum. Pars entomologica ad systema entomologiae. CL. Fabreicii ordinata etc. Leske was from Leipzig and the collection contained (s) Johann Christian Fabricius’ and Johann Friedrich Gmelin's types as well as his own.
- Edward Donovan The Natural history of British Insects commenced publication in London.
- Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer Faunae Insectorum Germanicae Initia oder Deutschlands published.
- William Dandridge Peck "The Description and History of the Canker Worm" Mass. Mag. Vol.7. Peck was the first native American entomologist.
- Gustav von Paykull's Fauna Suecica and Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger's Kugelann Verzeichniss der Kafer Prussens commenced publication. Illiger's work was a summary of Paykull’s revisions of Swedish beetles.
- Carl Henrik Boheman (1796–1868) born in Jönköping, Sweden. Boheman worked mainly on Coleoptera, especially Chryomelidae and Rhynchophora.
- John Abbot and James Edward Smith The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidoptera of Georgia. A masterwork with than 100 beautifully coloured plates.
- Pierre André Latreille. Precis des Caracteres Generiques des Insectes disposes dans un Ordre Naturel published. It proposed “ Natural classes and genera are based not only on the mouthparts, the wings or the antennae, but on careful observation of the entire structure, even of the smallest differences”.
- Jean Victoire Audouin (1797–1841) born.
- Edward Donovan An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of China published in London. It is a famed work of entomological art.
- Joseph Phillipe de Clairville Helvetische Entomologie published in Zurich.
- Andre Jean Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy (1799–1857) born in France. Robineau-Desvoidy worked mainly on Diptera
- Charles NodierDissertation sur l'usage des antennes dans les insectes.Paris
- Jean Baptiste Alphonse De Chauffour de Boisduval (1799–1879) born. This eminent lepidopterist was one of the original members of the Société Entomologique de France. He wrote fifty publications mainly on Lepidoptera but also on Coleoptera and Homoptera. He described the Lepidoptera taken on the voyages of L'Astrolabe and La Coquille.
[edit] See also
- Timeline of entomology — for a list of other available time periods
- List of entomologists
