Timeline of entomology – prior to 1800

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.

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.

Of the second kind Carl Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema Nature published in 1758 at Stockholm stands proud.

An example is René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur's Memoires pour Servir a L’Historie des Insectes.