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Beetles are the most diverse group in the animal kingdom, with over 350,000 described species and estimates of 5-8 million total. They are part of the phylum Arthropoda and class Insecta, with hardened front wings that give them their name. They vary in size and are popular for collections.
Beetles, members of the order Coleoptera, are the most diverse group in the animal kingdom, with the largest number of species. Science has described over 350,000 species, with estimates placing the total number of species at between 5 and 8 million. About 25% of all known life forms and 40% of described insect species are beetles.
These insects are placed in the phylum Arthropoda (arthropods), class Insecta (insects). Like other insects, they have hard shells, an open circulatory system, and are primarily small invertebrates. What distinguishes them from other insects are the hardened front wings, from which the order takes its name: coleus means shield and ptera means wing.
Once, biologist JBS Haldane was asked if he could tell anything about God from his study of nature. Haldane replied: “He must have an immoderate passion for beetles.” Discovering and classifying new ones is really a challenge for biologists and hundreds or thousands of new species are discovered every year, especially in the tropical zone. When scientists drop a net and shake trees in the tropics, thousands of insects fall into the net. They may be the easiest order of animals to find new species within.
Beetles vary wildly in size. The smallest known, the Nanosella mushroom, is 0.0098 inches (0.25 mm) long with a weight of 0.4 mg. The largest, Titanus giganteus, exceeds 8 cm in size and weighs more than 20 grams. They set other interesting records as well. For example, the rhinoceros beetle species, Dynastes hercules, can lift 100 times its own weight, a record that remained unchallenged until the tropical mite, Archegozetes longisetosus, was discovered to lift 850 times its own weight. It’s like an elephant that can carry 1,150 other elephants on its back.
Because of their abundance and diversity, beetles are popular subjects for insect collections. They are dried, mounted and displayed in hundreds of thousands of public and private collections around the world. It is through their study that many early post-Darwin biologists have come to better understand evolution.
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