cheirotonus macleayii long-armed leaf-beetle Beetles Beetles are one of the main groups of insects. Their order, Coleoptera (me
Beetles Beetles are one of the main groups of insects. Their order, Coleoptera (meaning "sheathed wing"), has more species in it than any other order in the entire animal kingdom. Forty percent of all described insect species are beetles (about 350,000 species), and new species are regularly discovered. Estimates put the total number of species - described and undescribed - at between 5 and 8 million. This is why, when J. B. S. Haldane, a British geneticist, was asked what his studies of nature revealed about god, he replied, "An inordinate fondness for beetles". Beetles can be found in almost all habitats, but are not known to occur in the sea or in the polar regions. They have a major impact on the ecosystem in three ways: feeding on plants and fungi, breaking down animal and plant debris, and eating other invertebrates. Certain species are agricultural pests in some areas, for example the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), while other species are important controls of agricultural pests, for example the lady beetles (family Coccinellidae) consume aphids, fruit flies, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops. Anatomy Bearing in mind the wide diversity and number of species the anatomy of beetles is quite uniform. Beetles are generally characterised by a particularly hard exoskeleton, and the hard wing-cases (elytra) which tend to cover the hind part of the body and protect the second wings, the alae. The elytra are not used in flying, but generally must be raised in order to move the hindwings. In some cases the ability to fly has been lost, characteristically in families such as Carabidae and Curculionidae. After landing, the hindwings are folded below the elytra. In a few families, both the ability to fly and the wing-cases have been lost, with the best known example being the "glowworms" of the family Phengodidae, in which the females are larviform throughout their lives. The bodies of beetles are divided into three s
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