California is home to perhaps 8,000 species of beetles, making them the largest group of animals in the state. In comparison there are only 5,800 species of vascular plants, 547 birds, 186 mammals, 240 butterflies, and 108 dragonflies and damselflies known to occur in California. We still don’t have a complete listing of all the beetles in the state. The sheer number of species, coupled with vast and still unexplored regions awaiting surveys by professional and amateur beetle specialists, continues to present catalogers with considerable challenges.

Still, beetles are a prominent part of California life, and people who take the...

The following key is designed as a guide to help place some of the more conspicuous species of California beetles in their proper families. By determining the family, or narrowing down the possibilities, you can turn to the appropriate section(s) of the book and compare your specimen with the photos and descriptions. Note that some beetle families are incredibly diverse in form and appear more than once in the key. Also note that it is beyond the scope of this book to provide a comprehensive key that will place all of California’s 8,000 or so beetle species to family. If...

A small and unusual family of primitive beetles, the Cupedidae contains only 30 species worldwide. They are considered to be relicts of a once more diverse group of beetles dating back to the Triassic more than 200 million years ago. Their elongate elytra are sculpted with square punctures, a feature that distinguishes this family from all other families of beetles.

Although uncommon in collections, a few species have been found in numbers in old logs, on dead branches, swarming in the sunlight near dense woods, at lights, or attracted to laundry bleach containing sodium hypochlorite. Both adults and larvae are...