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The five large insects depicted by August Roesel von Rosenhoff in his
Der Monatlich Herausgegeben Insectenbelustigung (Nuremburg, 1746-61)
are rhinoceros beetles, a group that is generally distinguished by the large
"horns" of the males. Of the approximately 1.82 million named species of
living animals and plants (excluding fungi and one-celled creatures) some
57 percent are insects, and some 400,000 of these are beetles (Order Coleoptera).
This abundance inspired the famous epigram, attributed to the evolutionary
biologist J. B. S. Haldane (1892-1964), that the Creator had "an inordinate
fondness for beetles." Roesel, a painter of miniatures, drew more than 2,200
figures for the 286 hand-colored plates of his multi-volume insect monograph. |
