Beetles belong to the taxonomic order Coleoptera, which comes from the Greek word koleopterus meaning 'sheath-winged'. Sometimes it's easy to forget that beetles have wings, but they do and, for the vast majority of species, they are fully functional giving some the ability to fly considerable distances. They are hidden behind hardened outer cases (elytrons), which are actually evolutionary modified forewings. It's the hindwings that are used for flying, which the insect deploys after the elytra is opened. The elytra also protect the beetle's soft abdomen giving them an armoured covering against any would-be predators as well the ability to live in tough habitats, such as under rocks, in the ground or old wood, or even in water.

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There's a great deal of variety in terms of size, general appearance, shape and form, colour and lifestyle, which is why the 4,200 or so British beetle species are placed in just over a hundred families, which in turn are split into various superfamilies within two distinct suborders, Adephaga and Polyphaga.

 

The Adephaga includes the water beetles and carabid ground beetles and, although I would obviously like to expand my current list of carabids, most of my interest is with the remaining terrestrial beetle families in the much larger Polyphaga division.

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I have no idea how far my journey of discovery will take me, but given that I only started photographing insects in 2020, I'm pretty pleased with the number of beetle species that I've been able to record. There are still a number of families that aren't represented here but, in this respect, it's worth noting that over a third of the 102 families in this order are small with five or less species. It will be interesting to see how my list grows because I suspect that, as with all insect groups, quite a lot of the supposedly common species can be found relatively easily if you're in a suitable location at the right time of year, but adding additional, not so common species will require a more targeted approach.

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In the meantime, I'm happy that the last full-scale annual update included around thirty-five new beetles that were found and photographed during the year, which brings the current total up to 186 species as listed below. The format works much the same as other collections in that clicking any of the thumbnail images will take you to a 'family account' page that includes a bit of basic information and photos of the associated species. The details generally relate to the family as a whole but, for some species, there are extra notes with features to assist identification. Larger families may be broken down into manageable smaller collections spread over two or more pages.

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The list will be regularly updated, although larger updates with new species will generally take place out of season when I have more time. The latest update is shown at the bottom of the page, likewise with the individual 'species accounts' that now include their own update version so that I can track text revisions or the addition of new photos that do not affect the following list.