Identifying beetles

Pyrochroa coccinea CC image by Sarefo

Just to get things straight before we start. There are about 4000 beetle species in the UK. But don't be frightened - a lot of those are very small or quite rare. The ones you find will probably be easier to identify. But it will take a bit of effort to do it properly.

I've recently bought a very nice book called 'A comprehensive guide to insects of Britain and Ireland' by Paul D. Brock.  It's full of clear photographs and there are many of beetles. I've found it really useful to flick through - you can start to get an idea of the range of shapes and sizes and colours. Of course it won't have everything you'll find. But it is a good start, and can give you encouragement (and perhaps a little overconfidence). You'll start to see which families your beetles might come from.

I would also thoroughly recommend checking out the photos and descriptions at the Watford Coleoptera Group website - head for the gallery. They don't have everything (well they might have everything around Watford) but even if they don't have your species, you might spot something like it that puts you back on track of the right family.  It's such a shame but this excellent website hasn't worked for some months.

A black oil beetle like one I saw in Wiltshire this year, with its kinked antennae. So big! CC Mark Coleman.

Some people will say you should start by using a key. But I would say (from experience) that as a beginner you could spend a lot of time struggling through a key and all its terminology, only to get to an answer that turns out to be spectacularly wrong, and this is very demoralising. I don't want you to be demoralised at such an early stage. I think if you spend time looking at Brock's book or the WCG pages, you will start to pick out the distinguishing features that are most important within your family.

I'm in no way suggesting you should just 'match the pictures' to your specimen - you need to read the descriptions too and compare features carefully. But when there are only a few British species in a family, you may find you can have a good degree of confidence. The Black oil beetle above is a case in point.

But then -

For the novice coleopterist to progress, he or she must first discover which family their beetle belongs in. We have two books with keys to the families, which I've found very useable:
D.M. Unwin's 'Key to the families of British beetles' (you can borrow one from OJ17, or a new copy is only £7.50)
and 'Collins Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe' by Michael Chinery (we have many copies of this).
Neither of these seem to be foolproof (my beetle tutor was unplussed by Unwin) but they seem to work most of the time, so are worth spending time on.

Both books give a brief description of each family with a guide to the number of British species. You should feel pleased to get this far - you will learn important things about different beetles' body structures. You'll get to recognise some distinctive families - the Carabidae (ground beetles), the Scarabeidae (which includes chafers and dung beetles) and the Curculionidae (weevils), for example. And you'll get to know some specialist beetle anatomy terminology.

Please do come in and use the dissecting microscopes - you'll need to. You might be able to manage to a certain extent with a pinned beetle and a handlens when you're counting the sections of its tarsi (essentially the foot). But it's so much easier with a microscope and I can assure you you will LOVE it, because - well beetles are amazing, especially in 3D closeup. I will be delighted to help you with what I know to start you off.

Cheekily borrowed from Lindroth's Carabidae book to show you some beetle anatomy. But don't panic.

So next comes the tricky bit - that of distinguishing the species. Some are easier to distinguish than others - sometimes there are only a few species in a family and they're quite distinctive. But do not be alarmed by the idea that some will be impossible - some groups are inherently very difficult, even for experienced and dedicated beetle-fanciers, and the keys don't even exist sometimes. Mark Telfer is an 'entomological consultant' and has a superb website - even he says things like "the Aleocharinae – the coleopterist’s Everest, the biggest and most challenging subfamily of beetles. Like Everest, it’s not a challenge you can really take on all by yourself. I am pottering slowly towards base camp."

So be kind to yourself and start somewhere manageable. I offer the following suggestions as a result of my own forays into beetle identification. I think my (sometimes slightly hapazard) methods are giving me enough success to feel I'm progressing (in what is a massive subject that could take up a lifetime...).

I have bought some copies of Martin Luff's key to British ground beetles (the Carabidae), and this is an excellent place to start on getting some beetles down to their species.

I also highly recommend Mike's Insect Keys. The amount of time and effort that goes into these websites is surely amazing - and it's great that people share their knowledge so freely. He has keys to lots and lots of the families, some based on the old-school bible of British beetles, a book written by Norman Joy in the 1930s. Mike's updated keys include photographs and diagrams, and they seem really clear. If you think you know what your species is, and then run it through the key, and the key agrees with you: endorphins will be released and you will want to continue with entomology. Likewise, if you were doubtful before, but the eventual answer from the key seems believable - you will feel encouraged. This is good. It doesn't always happen, but I hope it will happen sometimes for you.

Weevils are very sweet. CC image of Furcipus rectirostris by Ryszard.

I also recommend scrolling down on the front page of Mark Telfer's site  to see what information and links he has about your family (the list on the left). The advantage of online resources over keys in books is that improvements and clarifications can be added immediately. (You can be sure that whatever Mark recommends is reliable and good, but you might not want or need to leap into buying expensive books at this early stage).

(Another place to go is the Royal Entomological Society's Handbooks, where many family keys can be downloaded for free. I've spent time using Lindroth's Carabidae key from there, and although it led to considerable frustration, it taught me much terminology that's useful to understand. But I don't want you to be frightened off. I started with these but it would have been a lot easier to start with the recommendations above. We can go through these keys together if you like. It can be really helpful to have someone else to talk to who knows what crossed epipleura are.)

A Dytiscus water beetle, beautifully streamlined. CC by Rob Mitchell.

If you're interested in water beetles, there's Laurie E Friday's 'Key to the Adults of British Water Beetles.' We've a couple of hardback copies, but it can also be downloaded for free from the FSC via this link.The book has since been revised and expanded - I've not seen these editions yet but if you're really keen we could get hold of them. My knowledge of water beetle identification is woefully inadequate. Just reading this post from the Dragonflywoman has been quite instructive.They do have a reputation for being difficult though. Just remember, you don't have to identify everything you find. You can put it aside for your retirement or something, when you've got really good.

For the latest things I've spotted, look through my other beetle-related posts.

Whatever resources you use, you'll want to check that you've got the most current species name by putting it into the Natural History Museum's species dictionary.

And remember, please do come and use the microscopes, and feel free to ask for help.

Read on for information about collecting beetles, methods of killing them (sorry), and how to pin and label them.

NWBeeson's drawing of an insect leg