ABSTRACT
If these numbers had been anywhere close to the true diversity of the planet, Linné would have named an astonishingly large portion of the existing species himself. In reality, Linné had barely scratched the surface in most organism groups, even in his home country of Sweden. It is true that he described the bulk of Swedish vascular plants and vertebrates, but he clearly lacked an understanding of, or interest in, the diversity of other plants and animals. This is well illustrated by the insects, which I will be returning to throughout this chapter for examples illustrating the last 250 years of Swedish taxonomy. Insects account for about 80% of Swedish animal species and number in the tens of thousands but, in his Fauna Suecica, Linné (1761) listed only some 1,500 species that are still recognized today-a tiny fraction of the total.
