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This is a highly technical book, with extensive references to the literature.
The introduction includes a section on Beetle Anatomy that introduces all the technical terms used later. The bulk of the content consists of treatments of the 130-odd families known to occur in North America (a couple dozen are not known from NA, and are not described); the descriptive material applies worldwide, and there are brief notes about non-NA family members.

A family treatment consists of a morphological description, including the larvae if known, habits and habitats, status of the classification, a key to the Nearctic Genera (and sometimes species, if the family is small), and short treatments of the subtaxa. Every family gets at least one drawing of a member, and larger families may include dozens of drawings illustrating particular characters important for classification.

A handful of color photographs is included in a center section.

  • Volume 1: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia ISBN 0-8493-1925-0

  • Volume 2: Polyphaga ISBN 0-8493-0954-9