History of Insects [Hardcover]

This is the first single book to cover the whole of the fossil history of insects so comprehensively. The volume embraces subjects from the history of insect palaeontology to the diagnostic features of all insect orders, both extant and extinct.

Insects are not dinosaurs  and they probably pose us more strange ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS puzzles and unexpected questions. A million extant species, that is sev- For A. P. Rasnitsyn, preparing of various parts of this book was s- eral times more than all other living taxa together, is still a very c- ported in part by grants: by the International Science Foundation, by servative estimate, and their real number is for sure many times more. the Leverhulme Trust to D. L. J. Quicke and M. G. Fitton; by the Royal They are incomparably diverse in terms of their size, structure and way Society Joint Project with the FSU to APR and E. A. Jarzembowski; by of life  and yet they are all small  by our standard at least  why? And ESF Project Fossil Insects Network; by RFFI grants 95-04-11105, they practically ignore the cradle of life, the sea  again, why? Of 98-04-48518; by the Smithsonian Institution and California Academy course, some survive and even reproduce in salt water, but nevertheless of Sciences; and by various help, including sharing unpublished very few of them are specialised for marine life.Preface. Acknowledgements. Contributors. 1. Introduction to Palaeoentomology. 2. Class Insecta Linn?, 1758. The Insects. 3. General Features of the Insect History. 4. Appendix: Alphabetic List of Selected Insect Fossil Sites. 5. References. Indexes. Figure Captions.