Entomologia Carniolica


Entomologia Carniolica exhibens insecta Carnioliae indigena et distributa in ordines, genera, species, varietates is a taxonomic work by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, published in Vienna in 1763. As well as describing hundreds of new species, Entomologia Carniolica contained observations on the species' biology, including the first published account of queen bees mating outside the hive.

Classification

In contrast to his predecessors Carl Linnaeus and Johan Christian Fabricius, who had used the structure of the insect wing and the structure of the insect mouthparts, respectively, as the main means of classifying arthropods, Scopoli favoured a more holistic approach.
In Entomologia Carniolica, Scopoli described 1153 species of "insects", divided into seven orders:

Taxa

The animals described in Entomologia Carniolica were found in the Duchy of Carniola, an area at that time under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nowadays, it is the western part of Slovenia.
For each species, Scopoli gave references to previously published illustrations and binomial names. Few works using binomial nomenclature had appeared by 1763; those cited by Scopoli include the 10th edition of Systema Naturae and Fauna Suecica by Carl Linnaeus, and Insecta Musei Graecensis by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus. More than half of the species listed by Scopoli in Entomologia Carniolica were described as new. They include:
, originally described as Cantharis nobilis
, originally described as Phalaena trabealis
, originally described as Formica vaga
, originally described as Apis pascuorum
, originally described as Musca angelicae
, originally described as Oniscus muscorum
Entomologia Carniolica was published by Johann Thomas von Trattner in Vienna in 1763. Forty-three plates of illustrations were prepared for publication, but were never offered for sale, and few copies of Entomologia Carniolica include the plates. They illustrate the species numbered 1–815, with the exception of the genus Aphis.
Entomologia Carniolica was published long before the international standardisation of units; to help readers understand his measurements, Scopoli therefore included a printed scale of three Parisian inches, each divided into twelve lines. His inch was approximately long, making each line approximately.