page_title: Timeline of entomology – prior to 1800
section_title: 1750–1800
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of entomology – prior to 1800 / 18th century / 1750–1800
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), Swiss naturalistFrançais&#160;: Charles Bonnet né à Genève le 13 Mars 1720
context_page_description: 13,000 BC
  The earliest evidence of man's interest in insects is from rock paintings. The insects depicted are bees.
  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.
context_section_description: 1752
  Maria Theresa of Austria instructs Gerhard van Swieten to establish Vienna as an important centre of natural science. Many entomologists train there.
  Landgravine Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt founds Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe
  1753
  Louisa Ulrika of Prussia founded the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. Carl Linnaeus named the butterflies in her Drottningens insektsskåp or Drottningen Insect Cabinet 
  1757
  First volume of Carl Alexander Clerck's Svenska Spindlar published. Describing a number of spiders in binomial nomenclature, it was the first work to employ Linnaeus's binomial system, which had been proposed in his 1753 work Species Plantarum.
  1758
  Tenth edition of Carl 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.
  George Edwards Gleanings of Natural history exhibiting figures of Quadrupeds, Birds, Insects, Plants etc. London
  1759
  Johann Christian Daniel Schreber Schreberi Novae Species Insectorvm published.
  1760
  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.
  1761
  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".
  Johann Heinrich Sulzer published Die Kennzeichen der Insekten, nach Anleitung des Königl. Schwed. Ritters und Leibarzts Karl Linnaeus – The characteristics of insects, according to the instructions of Carl Linnaeus.
  1762
  Hans Strøm publishes as Physisk og Oeconomisk Beskrivelse over Fogderiet Søndmør I-II in Copenhagen (1762–1766).
  1763
  Giovanni Antonio Scopoli publishes Entomologia 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.
  Centuria Insectorum by Carl Linnaeus defended as a thesis by Boas Johansson
  1764
  Carl Friedrich Fallen (1764–1830) born. Johan Christian Fabricius attended Linnaeus’s lectures on natural classification. He was one of Linnaeus' most important pupils.
  Étienne Louis Geoffroy published Histoire des Insectes.
  1765
  Johann Eusebius Voet Catalogus Systematicus Coleopterorum published.
  Job Baster Opuscula subseciva, observationes miscellaneae de animalculis et plantis quibusdam eorum ovariis et seminibus continentia. Haarlem
  1766
  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.
  1767
  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 the Natural History Museum in London though a few are to be found in the Natural History Museum, Dublin.
  1770
caption: Bonnet
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