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Beetles and humans

BEETLES AND HUMANS

A growth of learning and curiosity about

nature marked the Renaissance and the

Enlightenment, and by the late 1600s it became

more usual for educated, affluent people to have

cabinets of curiosities, the progenitors of museum

collections. In 1735 Linnaeus published Systema

Naturae, which provided a framework and system

HISTORY OF COLEOPTEROLOGY

The history of the study of Coleoptera dates at

least to the Classical period of ancient Greece

and Rome. Aristotle (384–322 bce) and his

teacher Plato both mentioned beetles, and many

of the generic names used by Carolus Linnaeus,

such as Buprestis and Cicindela, are from Naturalis

Historia by Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce), the largest

surviving book from the Roman Empire. After the

fall of Rome, Europe suffered an extended period

of comparatively little curiosity-driven academic

study, and during these Dark Ages, interest in

beetles was restricted to their uses or threats to

human health or food security, or to allegorical

or superstitious significance. During the Medieval

period, monastic texts repeated classical authors,

often with stylized images, and ascribed spurious

medical properties or even religious significance

to beetles.

above | Chiasognathus

grantii (Lucanidae)

Darwin’s Stag Beetle.

Charles Darwin,

during HMS Beagle’s

stop in Chile, was

among the first to

observe the behavior

of this beetle.

left | Batocera wallacei

(Cerambycidae:

Lamiinae) From New

Guinea, this is one of

the largest of its genus,

named after Alfred

Russel Wallace.