Beetles

Beetles (order Coleoptera) are a group of insects in which the front pair of wings have hardened into a pair of wing-cases or elytra. The beetles are the largest of all animal orders, containing at least 400,000 described species – around a quarter of all animal species on Earth. Beetles occur in most habitats except for the oceans and polar regions.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

### My First

In My First Nature Video one of the activities, constructing pitfall traps for invertebrates, shows a violet ground beetle as one of the animals caught in the trap.

### See How They Grow

The See How They Grow episode Mini Beasts includes a segment about the life-cycle of the two-spot ladybird. The ladybird also reappears later in the spider segment of the episode.

### Eyewitness

A total of fourteen episodes of Eyewitness have at least one species of beetle appear within it. Both seasons one and three have five episodes, while season two has four episodes.

* **SEASON ONE**: Jungle, Amphibian, Insect, Elephant, Skeleton
* **SEASON TWO**: Desert, Tree, Pond and River, Shell
* **SEASON THREE**: Flight, Survival, Monster, Plant, Life

Insect understandably has the most beetle species appearing in it, with at least twenty-one different species. While Insect does include a goliath beetle *Goliathus goliatus*, its appearance makes it unclear whether it is a living animal or a dead specimen. Some beetles that appear solely in the Eyewitness programmes include the great diving beetle, Atlas beetle, seven-spot ladybird, frog-legged leaf beetle, Colorado potato beetle and the giant Malaysian palm weevil, one of the world’s largest weevils.

### Amazing Animals

A total of episodes of Amazing Animals have at least one species of beetle appearing in them. Season four has seven episodes with a beetle, season three has five episodes and seasons one and two have four episodes each containing at least one beetle species.

* **SEASON ONE**: Nighttime Animals, Animal Survivors, Armoured Animals, Mini-Beasts
* **SEASON TWO**: Desert Animals, Animal Records, Endangered Animals, Prehistoric Animals
* **SEASON THREE**: Animal Hunters, Rainforest Animals, Animal Acrobats, Giant Animals, Creepy Crawly Animals
* **SEASON FOUR**: Around the World, Underground Animals, Backyard Animals, Tiny Animals, Animal Partners, Scaly Animals, Animal Flight

The two episodes with the most beetle species are Mini-Beasts and Creepy Crawly Animals, both of which have at least fourteen different species appearing in the episode as either studio or stock footage. Some beetles that appear solely in Amazing Animals include the manticore beetle, green tiger beetle, fighting giant stag beetle, Hercules beetle, Derby’s flower beetle, striped love beetle, horned tortoise beetle, harlequin beetle and blue weevil.

Beetles as a group won the first prize in the Golden Gecko Awards in Creepy Crawly Animals. The dung beetle was the winner of the bronze award in Animal Acrobats.

Amazing Animals also has two different kinds of cartoon beetle - the Dung Beetles are fairly frequent recurring characters, while the Beetles only appear in a single episode in season four.

### Creatures Fantastic

Four different species of beetle appear in the Aliens episode of Creatures Fantastic. The rose chafer and an unidentified species of longhorn beetle represent some of the diversity of insects on Earth that are said in the episode to share some physical similarities with aliens, while the larva of a larder beetle parasitised by a wasp is used to represent the behaviour of the alien from the 1979 film *Alien* and an African bombardier beetle represents the acid-spraying aliens of the 1997 film *Starship Troopers*.

## Total species

* Great diving beetle, *Dytiscus marginalis*
* Whirligig beetle, *Gyrinus substriatus*
* Manticore beetle, *Manticora sp*.
* Green tiger beetle, *Cicindela campestris*
* Violet ground beetle, *Carabus violaceus*
* Bombardier beetle, *Brachinus sp.*
* African bombardier beetle, *Stenaptinus insignis*
* Rove beetle, *Paederus sp*.
* Japanese stag beetle, *Dorcus binodulosus*
* Fighting giant stag beetle, *Hexarthrius parryi*
* Rose chafer beetle, *Cetonia aurata*
* Sacred scarab beetle, *Scarabaeus sacer*
* Hercules beetle, *Dynastes hercules*
* Atlas beetle, *Chalcosoma atlas*
* Sun beetle, *Pachnoda marginata*
* Derby’s flower beetle, *Dicronorrhina derbyana*
* Striped love beetle, *Eudicella gralli*
* Maize beetle, *Prostephanus truncatus*
* Varied carpet beetle, *Anthrenus verbasci*
* Larder beetle, *Dermestes sp.*
* Deathwatch beetle, *Xestobium rufovillosum*
* Furniture beetle, *Anobium punctatum*
* Two-spot ladybird, *Adalia bipunctata*
* Seven-spot ladybird, *Coccinella septempunctata*
* Eyed ladybird, *Anatis ocellata*
* Twenty-two spot ladybird, *Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata*
* Urchin beetle, *Prionotheca coronata*
* Fog-basking beetle, *Onymacris unguicularis*
* White darkling beetle, *Cauricara eburnea*
* Frog-legged leaf beetle, *Sagra buqueti*
* Palmetto tortoise beetle, *Hemisphaerota cyanea*
* Horned tortoise beetle, *Omocerus casta*
* Poplar leaf beetle, *Chrysomela populi*
* Colorado potato beetle, *Leptinotarsa decemlineata*
* Harlequin beetle, *Acrocinus longimanus*
* Timberman beetle, *Acanthocinus aedilis*
* Wasp beetle, *Clytus arietis*
* Grain weevil, *Sitophilus granarius*
* Blue weevil, *Leptostethus sp.*
* Giant Malaysian palm weevil, *Macrochirus praetor*

## Gallery

Great diving beetleWhirligig beetleManticore beetleGreen tiger beetleViolet ground beetleBombardier beetleAfrican bombardier beetleRove beetleJapanese stag beetleFighting giant stag beetleRose chafer beetleHercules beetleAtlas beetleSun beetleDerby's flower beetleStriped love beetleVaried carpet beetleDeathwatch beetleFurniture beetleTwo-spot ladybirdSeven-spot ladybirdEyed ladybirdTwenty-two spot ladybirdUrchin beetleFog-basking beetleWhite darkling beetleFrog-legged leaf beetlePalmetto tortoise beetleHorned tortoise beetlePoplar leaf beetleColorado potato beetleHarlequin beetleTimberman beetleWasp beetleGrain weevilBlue weevilGiant Malaysian palm weevil