Beetle

Numbers of species.Beetles (Order Coleoptera) are known to include some 350,000 describedspecies. In the United States, there are nearly 30,000 kinds of beetles known. These figures are rising constantly due to the naming of new species by taxonomists. Size.Beetles vary from species that are barely visible (especially the Feather-winged beetles), to large tropical species that are the size of a human hand. Titanus giganteus,a long-horned beetle from South America, is usually considered to be the largest known beetle. Food.Beetles are such a large, diverse group that they have representatives that eat nearly every kind of food. They feed on all parts of living or dead land plants. Some are excellent hunters and predators. Some are scavengers and a few are parasitic. Habitats.Habitats of beetles on land are numerous. Many are on the ground or under material on the ground. Different kinds can be found on vegetation, in rotting wood or plants, in carrion, fungi, and dung. Some are aquatic, living in bodies of water that range from small puddles to cold mountain streams, and a few are parasitic. They are found in dry deserts and in the cold temperatures of mountain tops. A close-up of Colorado Potato Beetles (Chrysomelidae) covering a plant. From the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Photo by Chip Clark. (c) 1991 Smithsonian Institution. Benefits of beetles.Beetles are of value to humans in many ways. They are prominent decomposers,...

Ground beetles are predators on smaller insects. Beetles are the most common type of insect. Beetles are everywhere. But beetles can be confused with other kinds of insects, especially some true bugs. So how do you recognize a beetle? First look for the wings and wing covers. Most insects have wings, and those that do have two pairs. Beetles differ from all other winged insects by having the first pair of wings hardened and thickened. These hard forewings serve as a protective shield for the fragile flying wings, which are folded underneath. In fact the Latin name for this order, Coleoptera, means “folded wing”. Wing covers in beetles meet in a straight line down the middle of the back [the simplest test for a beetle is the one invented by school boys long ago–if it crunches when you step on it, it was probably a beetle (wing covers are brittle)–but let’s not]. There are a few true bugs (Order Hemiptera) whose wings somewhat resemble beetles, but true bug wings are only partly hardened and thickened. The outer half of true bug wings are translucent. The two groups can also be distinguished by their There’s one other complicating factor in recognizing beetles. Before emerging as winged adults, beetles undergo a very different-looking immature (or larval) stage. The larval life stages of beetles are very diverse in appearance, but generally are elongate with three pairs of jointed legs at the front of the body. They are told apart from caterpillars by the lack of claspers on...

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Beetles are amazing creatures that are easily recognized by their shell-like exteriors. The Coleoptera order is represented in 25,000 different known examples throughout North America and upwards of 350,000 species worldwide - making them the largest order of the animal kingdom. Beetles are unique in every insect way and appropriately diverse, coming in many varied shapes, forms and colors and each can be found in equally diverse environments suiting their particular lifestyles and food requirements. There are a total of [ 250 ] Beetles in the InsectIdentification.org database. Always pay close attention to color variations and body shapes when trying to identify a species. To remove entries below, simply click on the 'X' in the red box of each respective insect.

Key Points: • There are 30 types of beetles • Beetles have a wide variety of dietary needs and are very important to the ecosystem of our planet. • Adult beetles all have 2 sets of wings 1. Ladybug Caucasian red seven-spotted ladybug with black and white spots on the elytra. These types of beetles are omnivorous. © Sergey/Shutterstock.com Only The Top 1% Can Ace our Animal Quizzes Think You Can? Take Our Brand New A-Z-Animals Beetles Quiz 2. Carrion A burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespillo) sitting on a small rock. Both adult and larvae of these types of beetles feed on decaying animals and plants. ©iStock.com/Stefan Rotter Also called burying beetles, carrion beetles are found during any stage of decay. They live in North America and are mostly black, with a size of 9-30mm. Their scientific name is Silphidae and there are over 21 species. 3. Flesh-eating A Flesh-eating beetle on the body of a dead animal. These types of beetles are found on bodies that have been decomposing for weeks. ©Tomasz Klejdysz/Shutterstock.com 4. Rove Lordithon lunulatus, a type of rove beetle, on fungi. These types of beetles live in moist, humid environments around the world. ©Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock.com The scientific name of rove beetles is Staphylinidae, which has 63,000 species and thousands of genera, making them one of the most 5. Weevil Hylobius abietis, the large Pine Weevil Beetle. Weevils are one of the most common types of beetles. ©iStock.com/nechaev-kon Weevils have the scientific...

Email Pinterest Facebook Twitter Linkedin Beetles are some of the most fascinating types of insects that you will come across. Many types of beetles are harmless and can be beneficial for gardens or backyards. However, there are also some beetle species that can destroy plants or vegetation. Identifying beetles by their color, body shape, and other features can help to know which type of beetle you have. All types of beetle are anthropoids (phylum Arthropoda) that belong to the order Coleoptera. There are over 400,000 species of beetles that are divided into families and subgroups. Some types of beetles can fly and others bite. In fact, the old English word for beetle literally means “little biter.” Insects in the beetle order can range in size from very small to relatively large. The smallest species of beetle is also the smallest insect in the world. The Scydosella musawasensis beetle is less than 1 mm long! The largest beetle, the Titan beetle, can grow to nearly 7” (17 cm)! However, the average size of most beetles is under 1” (2.5 cm) long. Although many Beetles vs. Bugs Many people refer to beetles as bugs. However, true bugs in the order Hemiptera are not the same as beetles. Beetles are Coleoptera, and they have chewing mouthparts called mandibles. Bugs, instead, have piercing, sucking mouthparts they use to bite plant tissue or skin. The difference between beetles and bugs gets confusing because some beetles have the word “bug” in their common name. For example, l...

Beetles attract attention for many different reasons, including their economic importance, size, abundance, appearance, and remarkable habits. Several groups of beetles (e.g., Lampyridae) are among the few terrestrial animals capable of producing light; members of several other families (e.g., Cerambycidae) can produce sound (stridulate). Most large beetles make a loud noise during flight, and many species, both large and small, are attracted to light at night. Some beetles (e.g., burying beetles of the family General features Distribution and abundance Animal Factoids Most families contain both widely distributed species and some with very limited ranges. Wide distribution in this sense refers to a zoogeographical or faunal region; limited distribution, to a single valley, plain, island, altitude zone, or vegetation type on a mountain. Size range and diversity of structure Coleoptera vary greatly in size, from a fraction of a millimetre to more than 200 mm (almost 8 inches) in length (e.g., Xyloryctes satyrus) and up to 75 mm (2.95 inches) in width (e.g., goliath beetle, Goliathus goliathus). The extremely diverse Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles) are not always recognized as members of one family. Most arboreal (tree-dwelling) forms in the tropics or subtropics are slender and long-legged. Some slender and egg-shaped forms have a metallic sheen; most of the ground-dwelling forms are black and

What are Beetles? Beetles are a very diverse category of insect with about 400,000 known species in the world. Beetles live nearly everywhere and eat almost everything. You will likely encounter beetles frequently in your lifetime — but it doesn’t always have to be a bad experience. Beetle Facts The word “beetle” comes from an old English word that means “little biter”. They are insects that belong to the largest order in the animal kingdom — Coleoptera — which means “folded wing” or “sheathed wing”. Beetles are everywhere. Approximately one-fourth of all animal species known to science are beetles and there are about 30,000 known species in the United States and Canada alone. Scientists estimate there are millions more species of beetles yet to be discovered. Beetle Life Cycle The beetle life cycle varies from species to species, but there are also many similarities. All beetles have four life stages: 1. Egg. Female beetles will lay hundreds of tiny yellow or white roundish eggs, which take four to 19 days to hatch. Some females lay eggs under leaves or in rotten wood, in underground structures made of dung, or inside leaves that they rolled up themselves. A few beetle species don’t lay eggs but keep them inside the female’s body and give birth to live larva. 2. Larva. In the larval stage, the young beetles eat and grow, shedding their exoskeleton as they get bigger. Most beetles have three to five larval stages, but it can vary from one to stages, depending on the specie...