COLEOPTERA

With more than 400,000 described species, beetles are currently the most diverse lineage of life. They are found on every major landmass and are famous for their varied morphology, life history, and behavior. The size of an individual beetle can range from less than 0.5mm (featherwing beetle) to well over 6in or almost 16cm long (Titan longhorn), with everything in between. Beetles can be predators, bore into wood, pollinate flowers, roll dung, parasitize bees, and so much more. They can be found deep underground or flying to the tops of the tallest trees, many are adapted to swim in ponds or streams, or even survive the trip through the digestive tract of a frog. All this knowledge is archived, along with vouchered specimens, in one of the world’s biggest natural history collections, the Florida State Collection of Arthropods.