Entomology, the scientific study of insects and closely related terrestrial arthropods, has been impelled by the necessity of societies to protect themselves from insect-borne diseases, crop losses to pest insects, and insect-related discomfort, as well as by people's natural curiosity. Though many significant developments in the field happened only recently, in the 19th–20th centuries, the history of entomology stretches back to prehistory.
Prehistory
13,000 BC – The earliest evidence of man's interest in insects is from rock paintings. The insects depicted are bees. A carving of a cave cricket from the Cave of the Trois-Frères is similarly dated. 1800–1700 BC – Bees were significant in other early civilisations, for instance at Malia, Crete, where jewellery depicts two golden bees holding a drop of honey.
Egypt, Greek and Roman empires
1000 BC – A sacred scarab beetle, held to be sacred by the Ancient Egyptians, is painted on wall of Rameses IX's tomb. Bee-keeping was particularly well developed in Egypt and was discussed by the Roman writers Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro and Columella. 620–560 BC – Aesop's Fables relate stories of grasshoppers, ants and other insects. c. 343 BC – Aristotle writes History of Animals In this work Aristotle includes insects in a class "Entoma" which also includes the arachnids and the myriapods but not the Crustacea which formed another class "Malacostraca" of the "Anaema" or "bloodless animals." (Insecta is the Latin translation of Aristotle's Greek εντομον, Entomon. Parts of Animals on zoological anatomy followed. For nearly 2000 years the few writers who dealt with zoological subjects followed Aristotle's leading. 77–79 AD – Pliny the Elder publishes Naturalis Historia 847 AD – Rabanus Maurus authors the encyclopaedia De rerum naturis ('On the Nature of Things').
10th–15th centuries Medieval period – the great chain of being, a hierarchical structure of all matter and life thought to be decreed by God, is developed throughout medieval Christianity. It has its origins in Plato, Aristotle (in his Historia Animalium), Plotinus and Proclus. 1061 – Shen Kuo described the role of predatory insects in protecting crops from insect pests. 1230–1245 – Thomas of Cantimpré writes Liber de natura rerum, an encyclopedia of natural history 1240 – Bartholomeus Anglicus writes De proprietatibus rerum, "On the Properties of Things", a 19-volume encyclopaedia including entries on insects 1250 – Vincent of Beauvais Speculum Naturale treats insects, especially bees. c. 1250 – 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. 1258 – Albertus Magnus treats insects in De animalibus. 1350 – Konrad of Megenberg writes Buch der Natur, the first natural history in the German language, with the section "Von den Würmen" covering insects. Written in 1350, Buch der Natur was first printed in moveable type in 1475. NCSU Libraries owns a fragment of the fourth describes insects—both real and imaginary—and reptiles.
15th century
Carlo Crivelli draws an association between flies and death in a painting of the Madonna and Child.
16th century
Although the earliest pictorial record of a natural history cabinet is the engraving in Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599), such collections became more than rudimentary early in this century.
1503 – The Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany has accurate marginal illustrations of plants and insects. 1505 – Albrecht Dürer paints a stag-beetle. 1551 – Zoologist Conrad Gesner publishes the first volume of Historia animalium or History of Animals. The work includes some mention of insects. 1556 – Guillaume Rondelet, a professor in Montpellier, publishes De insectis et zoophytis liber. 1575 – Joris Hoefnagel begins Animalia Rationalia et Insecta, finished in 1580. 1578 – Li Shizhen includes very many insects amongst the 1,000 animals described in Bencao Gangmu.
17th century
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
