Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms; new species are discovered frequently. The largest of all families, the Curculionidae (weevils), with some 83,000 member species, belongs to this order. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS was a British member of the Imperial Civil Service, a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress. A notable ornithologist, Hume has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology" and, by those who found him dogmatic, "the Pope of Indian ornithology".
The longhorn beetles are a family of beetles, typically characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body. In various members of the family, however, the antennae are quite short and such species can be difficult to distinguish from related beetle families such as the Chrysomelidae. The family is large, with over 26,000 species described, slightly more than half from the Eastern Hemisphere. Several are serious pests. The larvae, called roundheaded borers, bore into wood, where they can cause extensive damage to either living trees or untreated lumber. A number of species mimic ants, bees, and wasps, though a majority of species are cryptically colored. The rare titan beetle from northeastern South America is often considered the largest insect, with a maximum known body length of just over 16.7 cm (6.6 in). The scientific name of this beetle family goes back to a figure from Greek mythology: after an argument with nymphs, the shepherd Cerambus was transformed into a large beetle with horns.
The Himalayan quail or mountain quail, is a medium-sized quail belonging to the pheasant family. It was last reported in 1876 and is feared extinct. This species was known from only 2 locations in the western Himalayas in Uttarakhand, north-west India. The last verifiable record was in 1876 near the hill station of Mussoorie.
Frederick William Hope was an English clergyman, naturalist, collector, and entomologist, who founded a professorship at the University of Oxford to which he gave his entire collections of insects. He described numerous species and was a founder of the Entomological Society of London in 1833 along with John Obadiah Westwood.
The large-billed reed warbler is an Old World warbler in the genus Acrocephalus. The species has been dubbed as "the world's least known bird". It was known from a single specimen collected in India in 1867 and rediscovered in the wild in Thailand in 2006. The identity of the bird caught in Thailand was established by matching DNA sequences extracted from feathers; the bird was released. After the rediscovery in the wild a second specimen was discovered amid Acrocephalus dumetorum specimens in the collections of the Natural History Museum at Tring. A breeding area was found in Afghanistan in 2009 and studies in 2011 pointed to its breeding in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. One bird was found in the Baikka Wetland in Srimangal, Bangladesh on 7 December 2011.
The Wayanad laughingthrush is a species of laughingthrush in the family Leiothrichidae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats south of Goa in India. These laughingthrushes move in groups in dense forests, producing loud calls but tend to be hard to spot in the undergrowth. They have brown upperparts, a white throat, a broad black mask through the eye and a heavy bill with pale yellow on the lower mandible. Despite the name, derived from the Wayanad region, this species has a wider range than the four other south Indian species of laughingthrush that are restricted to the higher elevation hills.
The Disteniidae are a small family of beetles in the superfamily Chrysomeloidea, traditionally treated as a group within the Cerambycidae.
The Vesperidae are a small family of beetles, normally classified within the family Cerambycidae, of heterogeneous aspect but all characterised by larval stages related to roots of herbaceous plants or trees
The Trictenotomidae are a small family of beetles in the suborder Polyphaga containing fifteen species in two genera. Most species are found in the Oriental realm where they live in montane forest habitats. The family is considered, based on larval characters as well as sequence-based studies, to be closely related to the Salpingidae.
Batocera is a genus of the family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lamiinae, close to the genus Rosenbergia.
Parevander xanthomelas is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in 1844, and has been classified in the genus Parevander since the circumscription of that genus by Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius in 1912.
Dorcasina matthewsii is a species of flower longhorn in the beetle family Cerambycidae. It is found in North America and was described by John Lawrence LeConte in 1869.
Eburia tetrastalacta is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae.
Aristobia reticulator is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It is known from Myanmar, India, China, Laos, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam. It feeds on Prunus persica, Liquidambar formosana, Quercus acutissima, Prunus salicina, and Nephelium mutabile. Many references list the name as Aristobia testudo, but this name, though published earlier, is unavailable under the ICZN, primarily in that Johann Eusebius Voet's 1778 work giving the name testudo fails to fulfill the requirement in ICZN Article 11.4 that a work must be consistently binominal; none of Voet's 1778 names, including testudo, are available.
Calothyrza margaritifera is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by John O. Westwood in 1848 in his "The Cabinet of Oriental Entomology" as Phryneta margaritifera.
Linda rubescens is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Frederick William Hope in 1831. It is known from Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Pachylocerus sulcatus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It is found in Southeast Asia from northeastern India to Vietnam.
Stromatium barbatum is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. This species is native to the Oriental region. It has been recorded in mainland India, the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Réunion and Seychelles. This species has also spread to continental Africa and Madagascar.
Pachylocerus crassicornis is a species of long-horned beetle found in Peninsular India known from Chota Nagpur south to Kerala.
