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Narrative
Beetles (Order Coleoptera) are a diverse group of insects found throughout the world. They usually can fly and typically have four wings. Two of the wings are hardened (elytra) and serve as a body cover to protect the flying wings and abdomen. Beetles begin their life as a larvae or grub that goes through a metamorphosis that turns this worm-like creature into an adult with six legs and four wings. There probably are over 500,000 species of beetles in the world. However, that number is only conjecture as the United States does not have a complete list of its known species.
The United States has relatively few exotic beetles. However, countries like Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, Zaire, Malaysia, and Peru have many beautiful beetles.
Exotic beetles are such a fascination in Europe and Japan that they are collected much as coins are collected throughout the rest of the world.
Taxonomy
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Latin
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English
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Kingdom
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Animalia
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Animal
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Phylum
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Arthropoda
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Jointed Legged Animals
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Class
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Insecta
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Insects
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Order
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Coleoptera
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Beetles
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Family
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SubFamily
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References
| Title | Author | Comments |
| Beetles | Reitter, Ewald | This beautifully illustrated book covers some of the giant and exotic beetles of the world. It was originally published in German, and then republished in English. The photography and printing of this book make it one of the most lavish books ever published. The color plates of the various giant and colorful beetles are truly excellent. This survey book pictures about 100 different specimens portrayed on about 60 folio sized color plates. |
| Introduction to North American Beetles | Papp, Charles S. | This book provides an introduction to the beetles of North America. With over 1,000 species discussed and illustrated with line drawings, this book takes a giant step forward in introducing one to the beetles of North America. However, the student of large and colorful species might be disappointed, as several of the larger and better known species are not included in this survey. (Dynastes granti, Pseudolucanus capreolus, Pseudolucanus placidus, and Pseudolucanus mazama, for example, are not included) |
| A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America | Dillon, Elizabeth S | This is the classic work on the beetles of eastern North America. With numerous line drawings, one should be able to identify most large beetles found in this area. Nearly 1,200 species in 64 different families are shown. |
| The Beetles | Jacques, H.E. | About 900 pictures od beetles are displayed in line drawings, and another 600 are discussed making this a useful reference for identifying many of the most common and larger beetles of North America. |
| Beetles | White, Richard E. | This field guide gives an overview of the common and larger beetles of the United States. |
| A Distributional Checklist of the Beetles (Coleoptera) of Florida | Peck, Stewart | A taxonmic list of all the species of beetles known to occur in Florida. |
| Beetles of the Pacific Northwest - Part V | Hatch, Melville H. | This is one of the series on the beetles of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. With 662 pages, this book covers in detail the species within each part. With very detailed keys for each species, this work covers the beetles quite adequately. The lack of color pictures, makes this a difficult book for the amateur. The Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, and Curculionidae are included in this volume. |
| Arthropods of Florida - Distributional Checklist of the Beetles of Florida | Peck, Stewart B. | This scientific work lists the species of beetles found in Florida, and also gives their range. The work is organized by families and subfamilies, and it is easy to use. |
| Insects of Japan - Coleoptera | Nakane, Takehiko | This work was published in Japan in Japanese. Although the text is in Japanese, the color plates are identified with Latin scientific names. This volume covers various beetle families such as the Lucanidae, Scarabaedae, Carabidae, Ceramybcidae, and Cicindellidae. |
| Butterfly Fauna of Ceylon | Woodhouse, L.G.O. | This older work supplies excellent color plates and excellent text of the butterflies of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). |
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