Beetles
‘A truly excellent account’ British WildlifeBeetles are arguably the most diverse organisms in the world, with nearly half a million beetle species described and catalogued in our museums, more than any other type of living thing.This astonishing species diversity is matched by a similar diversity in shape, form, size, life history, ecology, physiology and behaviour. Beetles occur everywhere, and do everything. And yet they form a clearly discrete insect group, typically characterised by their attractively compact form, with flight wings folded neatly under smooth hard wing-cases. Almost anyone could recognise a beetle, indeed many are intimately associated with human society. Groups like ladybirds are familiar to us from a very young age. Large stag beetles and handsome chafers are celebrated for their imposing size and bright colours. The sacred scarabs of the ancient Egyptians were given iconic, if not god-like, status and even though the exact religious meanings may be fading after three millennia, their bewitching jewellery and monumental statuary inspire us still.Despite this ancient and easy familiarity with beetles, the Coleoptera remains tainted by the notion that it is a ‘difficult’ group of insects. The traditional routes into studying British natural history, through birdwatching, butterfly-collecting and pressing wild flowers, now extend to studying dragonflies, bumblebees, grasshoppers, moths, hoverflies and even shieldbugs. These are on the verge of becoming popular groups, but beetles remain the preserve of the expert, or so it seems. So many British beetles are easy to find and easy to identify by the non-expert, but that bewildering background diversity, and the daunting numbers of species in the Coleoptera as a whole, have been enough to dissuade many a potential coleopterist from grasping the nettle and getting stuck in.Richard Jones’ groundbreaking New Naturalist volume on beetles encourages those enthusiasts who would otherwise be put off by the, to date, rather technical literature that has dominated the field, providing a comprehensive natural history of this fascinating and beautiful group of insects.
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William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2018 Copyright © Richard Jones, 2018 Richard Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Cover design linocut by Robert Gillmor. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this eBook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Source ISBN: 9780008149529 Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008149512 Version: 2018-01-17
to Peter Hodge, coleopterist, mentor, friend
EDITORS
SARAH A. CORBET, SCD DAVID STREETER, MBE, FIBIOL JIM FLEGG, OBE, FIHORT PROF. JONATHAN SILVERTOWN PROF. BRIAN SHORT
*
The aim of this series is to interest the general
reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the enquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Editorsâ Preface
Authorâs Foreword and Acknowledgements
1 What is a Beetle?
2 Beetle Variety
3 Life Histories â Larval Forms and Behaviour
4 Special Features â Adult Quirks and Oddities
5 Beetle Flight
6 Beetle Habitats and Natural History
7 British Beetle Families
8 The Human Significance of Beetles
9 Evolutionary History of Beetles
10 The Origins of British Beetles
11 A History of British Coleopterists
12 The Future â How to Study Beetles
Appendix: Online Resources
Footnotes
Glossary
References
The New Naturalist Library
About the Author
About the Publisher
WHY HAS THE NEW NATURALIST LIBRARY waited so long to produce a book on beetles? We have long known that we needed one â beetles are ubiquitous, intriguing and much loved by many, from Charles Darwin to Christopher Robin, but they are surprisingly poorly covered in the literature. Comprehensive accounts of their natural history have been few, and until recently the keys needed by beginners to gain access to the group have been out of print, out of date or generally out of reach in terms of price. We knew that writing this book would be a challenge, requiring a huge fund of knowledge, boundless enthusiasm and an ability to do justice to a complex subject without flooding the reader with detail. It took time to find the right author. We are very glad that Richard Jones consented to meet the challenge, and we are delighted with the result. This book illustrates the pleasure that can be derived from the study of beetles, giving a conspectus of the group as a whole and delving into the quirks of natural history that make them so fascinating, and we expect that the key to beetle families and the listing of literature that enables one to move on to a species identification will help to remove some of the barriers that prevent more naturalists from indulging in coleopterology. Many established British naturalists found their early inspiration in a New Naturalist volume, and we expect this to inspire a new generation of beetle enthusiasts.
BEETLES ARE, ARGUABLY, the most important organisms on Earth. With nigh on half a million beetle species already described and catalogued in the worldâs museums, there are more types of beetle on this planet than any other group of creatures (quietly brushing aside nematodes for a moment, perhaps). They are certainly more diverse than any other category of living thing. Even so, we still know so little about them. Of those we do know, and have given names to, we hardly have a clue about their life histories, their larvae, their predators, or their interactions with other plants and animals. There are an estimated 1â3 million more beetle species out there waiting to be discovered, mostly in the deep, dark, dank rainforests of the tropics, although some would argue 30 million species are likely to exist. Even the experts canât agree.
This astonishing species diversity is matched by a similar diversity in shape, form, size, life history, ecology, physiology and behaviour. In effect, beetles occur everywhere, and do everything. And yet beetles form a clearly discrete insect group, typically characterised by their attractively compact form, with flight wings folded neatly under smooth, hard wing-cases. Almost anyone could recognise a beetle; indeed, many are intimately associated with human society. Groups like ladybirds are familiar to us from a very young age. Large stag beetles and handsome chafers are celebrated for their imposing size or bright colours. The sacred scarabs of the ancient Egyptians were given iconic, if not god-like, status, and even though the exact religious meanings may be fading after three millennia, the beetlesâ images remain in bewitching jewellery and monumental statuary.
