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. – 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." ( is the Latin translation of Aristotle's Greek . 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 847 AD – Rabanus Maurus authors the encyclopaedia ('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 ), Plotinus and Proclus. 1061 – Shen Kuo described the role of predatory insects in protecting crops from insect pests. 1230–1245 – Thomas of Cantimpré writes , an encyclopedia of natural history 1240 – Bartholomeus Anglicus writes , "On the Properties of Things", a 19-volume encyclopaedia including entries on insects 1250 – Vincent of Beauvais treats insects, especially bees. – The first documented forensic entomology case is reported by Song Ci in the medico-legal text book . He describes the case of a stabbing near a rice field. 1258 – Albertus Magnus treats insects in .http://gallica.bnf.fr/?&lang=EN online 1350 – Konrad of Megenberg writes , the first natural history in the German language, with the section covering insects. Written in 1350, 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 (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 or History of Animals. The work includes some mention of insects. 1556 – Guillaume Rondelet, a professor in Montpellier, publishes . 1575 – Joris Hoefnagel begins , finished in 1580. 1578 – Li Shizhen includes very many insects amongst the 1,000 animals described in .

17th century

1602 – Ulisse Aldrovandi's published. This work was devoted to the insects and some other invertebrates. 1609 – The Feminine Monarchie, written by Charles Butler, is published by Joseph Barnes, Oxford, the first full-length English-language book about beekeeping. The title expresses the main idea that the colony is governed, not by a king-bee, as Aristotle claimed, but by a queen-bee. 1630 – Jacob Hoefnagel writes , published in Amsterdam by Nicolao Ioannis Visscher. 1634 – , by Thomas Muffet with Edward Wotton, Conrad Gesner and Thomas Penny, is posthumously published, containing the first image of a butterfly from North America, a woodblock print from a painting by John White in 1587. 1646 – Wenceslaus Hollar publishes in Antwerp. 1653 – Joannes Jonstonus's is published, a compilation of Konrad Gesner's (1516–1565) and Ulisse Aldrovandi's (1522–1605) natural histories, but with plates engraved by Matthäus Merian. 1654 – Eleanor Glanville, notable British entomologist in the field of moths and butterflies, is born. 1655 – Samuel Hartlib writes The Reformed Commonwealth of Bees 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. 1668 – Erasmus Finx's is published. 1669 – 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. 1674 – Johann Daniel Major published , outlining a collection strategy for museums, and lists collections already extant. 1679 – Bohuslav Balbín begins Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae with Liber naturalis – the Nature of Bohemia which contains notes on insects. 1683 – Ole Borch's is published. 1685 – Jan Goedart publishes . Anton Leeuenhoek publishes . 1688 – Steven Blankaart publishes (Showplace of caterpillars, worms, maggots and flying things), published in Amsterdam. 1691 – Filippo Bonanni published 1696 – 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. From 1696 to 1700 – Antonio Vallisneri's , in English, "Dialogues on the curious origin of several insects", is published, in which he, with Francesco Redi and Malpighi, contradict the theory of spontaneous generation of maggots.

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 Sybilla 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 Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema Nature published in 1758 at Stockholm 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.

1700–1750

1700 Prussian Academy of Sciences founded in Berlin.

1702 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.

1705 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.

1710 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.

1715 1715 -Levinus Vincent publishes Wondertooneel der Nature the Wonder Theater of Nature

1717 James Petiver publishes a book on British butterflies entitled Papilionum Brittaniae.

1720 Eleazar Albin publishes A Natural History of English Insects. Charles de Geer born Johann Leonhard Frisch 1720-1738 Beschreibung von allerley Insecten in Teutschland Berlin (1720–1738)

1730 Moses Harris (1730–1788) born in England. Harris was a pioneer of the use of wing venation in insect systematics.

1731 Mark Catesby publishes part one of The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.

1734 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.

1737 Microscopist Jan Swammerdam's Biblia naturae or "Book of Nature" is reissued. Describing his studies of insects, it is a founding work of entomology. It is in Latin. Swammerdam's co-authors were Herman Boerhaave and Hieronymus David Gaubius.

1738 Adolph Modeer born.

1739 John K'Eogh publishes Zoologica Medicinalis Hibernica, in English, "Zoological Medicine in Ireland".

1740 Charles Bonnet discovers parthenogenesis by observing that female aphids could reproduce without fertilization.

1745 Johan 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.

1746 August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof publishes Insecten-Belustigung, in English, "Insect Entertainment".

1748 Georg Dionysus Ehret publishes first part of Plantae et Papiliones Depictae. James Dutfield publishes English Moths and Butterflies.

1749 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.

1750–1800

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.