The following beetle and text scanned without permission from:
National Geographic
Vol. 193, No. 3, Page 102
Article By: Douglas H. Chadwick
Photo By: Mark W. Moffett
We tend to assume that big, warm-blooded beasts dominate wildlife communities. Beetles, which splat on windshields and crunch underfoot don't seem terribly significant by comparison. But the 4,000 different mammals and 9,000 birds on the planet add up to well under one percent of the 1.75 million specis identified by science. Insects make up about 60 percent, and at least a third of them are in the order Coleoptera -- the beetles. This group includes more species than any the entire plant kingdom does, and scientists agree that many thousands, and perhaps millions, more beetles have yet to be discovered. - Mark W. Moffett
When asked what his studies of nature have revealed about
God, J.B.S. Haldane, the renowned British physiologist and philosopher,
is said to have replied: "An inordinant fondness for beetles." My friend
Michael Lvie, a Montana coleopterist, just says, "We like to think we are
living in the age of man, but we are obviously living in the age of beetles."-
Mark W. Moffett