Introduction

The beetles comprise the largest and most diverse order of life on Earth. Beetles occupy almost every conceivable habitat except for the purely marine. The immense number of species and great diversity have resulted in an equally immense literature that can be daunting even to the professional systematist. Relatively few works have attempted to treat the entire Order Coleoptera, and then usually only for a restricted geographical area or at the family level only. One of those few was Ross H. Arnett, Jr.’s The Beetles of the United States (A Manual for Identification), published in fascicles from 1960 to 1963 and then reprinted in 1963, 1968, 1971, and 1973. It has been out of print for many years.