Beetles (Coleoptora)

Probably the best references for UK beetle identification are the four-volume "Beetles of Britain and Ireland" by Andrew Duff and Mike Hackston's online keys. Duff's volumes are excellent and I recommend them for those who can afford them (and who are willing to examine beetles under a microscope). Hackston's online keys are also excellent, and free to download. However, there are quite a number of beetles that I would have either been unable to identify, or in a few cases would have identified incorrectly, if I had used only one (either one) of these two references, so really I recommend using both together, at least for trickier species. Some of my ID challenges have arisen through inexperience or misunderstanding of the keys, rather than being a product of errors in the keys, though in a few case there do seem to be some mistakes or at least over-simplifications in the keys (as is inevitable given the scale of the work). When struggling I often also refer to the Beetles of Europe website fairly often - the text is in German but it often has additional detail, or photos of details like genitalia that aren't shown in the other keys.

Even with excellent resources it's still easy to make mistakes, so as always, if you find anything among my pages that you suspect (or know) is incorrect, please do let me know. I've covered a lot of beetles here now but in doing so I do not claim expertise and it is entirely plausible that the odd mistake has slipped in.

I'm in the process of adding these systematically, reviewing old records and identifying outstanding specimens as I go. I've got Chrysomelidae and all the weevil families left to go...

Suborder Adephaga

Family Gyrinidae (whirligig beetles)

Family Dytiscidae (diving beetles)

Family Carabidae (ground beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga

Superfamily Hydrophiloidea

includes families Helophoridae, Histeridae and Hydrophilidae

Superfamily Staphylinoidea

includes families Leiodidae, Ptiliidae, Silphidae and Staphylinidae

Superfamily Scarabaeoidea

includes families Geotrupidae, Lucanidae and Scarabaeidae

Superfamily Scirtoidea: family Scirtidae (marsh beetles)

Superfamily Dascilloidea: family Dascillidae (soft-bodied flower beetles)

Superfamily Byrrhoidea

includes families Byrrhidae, Dryopidae and Heteroceridae

Superfamily Elateroidea

includes families Cantharidae, Elateridae and Lampyridae and Throscidae

Superfamily Bostrichoidea

includes families Dermestidae and Ptinidae

Superfamily Cleroidea

includes families Cleridae, Melyridae and Phloiophilidae

Superfamily Cucujoidea

includes families Byturidae, Coccinellidae, Corylophidae, Cryptophagidae, Endomychidae, Kateretidae, Latridiidae, Monotomidae, Nitidulidae and Phalacridae

Superfamily Tenebrionoidea

includes families Aderidae, Anthicidae, Meloidae, Mordellidae, Mycetophagidae, Oedemeridae, Pyrochroidae, Salpingidae, Scraptiidae, Tenebrionidae, Tetratomidae and Zopheridae

Superfamily Chrysomeloidea

includes families Cerambycidae and Chrysomelidae (in progress)

Until I get to them systemmatically, species in the following families are being added in an ad hoc manner as and when I come across new species or individuals that have provided ID challenges.

Family Rhynchitidiae (tooth-nosed snout weevils)