Beetles of Eastern North America

I liked the number of pictures. Since there are so many beetles in the world having many photos of them are helpful for identification.

Excellent photos and organization of the taxa. User friendly, presents foundational, required knowledge to help learn identification processes. Includes anatomy and a key. This book is satisfyingly exciting for those from budding beetle enthusiasts to the advanced Coleopterist. It is the beetle book that I've been looking for! Thanks!

Wow....finally a beetle reference that a non- Coleoptera specialist can use has been recently released. This book is totally awesome in many ways. It is super well organized, has many many plates, fine descriptions of families and species, and is worth much more than the price I paid for it. I just got it recently, so I have many hours of use for it coming up. What I really like about this is that it fills the needs of someone who (admittedly) is not a guru with beetles. I have the American Beetles books Vol. 1&2 by Arnett which are a bit tough for one to use easily. This book is very user- friendly and is kind of a link between Arnett's books mentioned earlier and White's Peterson's Field Guide to the Beetles.The beginning is very helpful in getting one started in the basic recognition of genera/families. It has many plates of pic as opposed to b/w drawings.I really can't believe the low price for a book such as this. I did find the best deal at Amazon.com. It has 1500 color images and covers the 115 families in the region. I paid $25 for it and am impressed.It is the best in depth useful book out there.

The species coverage is excellent, but without any real knowledge of beetle diversity, it's a bit difficult for a novice to utilize. The book is organized by beetle order (a taxonomic distinction, which I generally prefer), but there is no feature to help bridge the gap between novice and more seasoned beetle identifier. The images of each species are quite nice, if not one dimensional. The descriptions are a bit technical, and could benefit from a transfer of information into visual format (insect range, primarily). Each species is given only a brief description and a topside image, which doesn't quite do them justice. Despite the shortcomings of Beetles of Eastern North America, the species coverage and excellent photos make it worth buying if you're at all interested in beetle diversity!

This book is amazing. It is much larger and more thorough than I expected. The color photos are numerous and exquisite. I think it is a bargain for the price. And it is wonderful addition to our home nature library.

More detail than your average field guide, this is a BIG book! A great informational overview on beetle groups and some of the finer details that help distinguish between them. Identifying most species definitively requires the use of a microscope, looking at the reproductive structures of male beetles. This book makes this point clear and states that while it is beyond the scope of this book, it does touch on the big groups of beetles and the more easily identifiable ones. A great starting place for the budding entomologist or naturalist that seeks to have a more general understanding of the world around him/her, and for somebody wanting to start a beetle collection. This is probably one of the better general field guides for insects that I have obtained.

... which is why it's so cheap! Also why it weighs so much... all the Princeton Press biology guides I have are printed in China on weird super heavy glossy pages.. but the spines hold up, and they're easy on the eyes, so I can't complain too much I guess.The intro section on beetle anatomy, general life history, and collecting/rearing techniques is great.The pictures are great.Each family has a short description on life history, collecting techniques, identification, which is great.Like most books of its kind, it's a clumsy source for identifying a beetle you happen to come across, but it tries harder than most books do.Worth having, as an interesting coffee table piece, if you aren't someone who studies or works with beetles. If you are, of course you should have it. Even if you don't live in the Eastern U.S.

I use the book to try to ID beetles I come across as a naturalist. Other field guides are rather limited to just a few line drawings and paintings. This goes far beyond those. It is NOT a field guide but great for a home reference source. I usually carry a camera of some sort and take photos in the field, bring them home and compare to photos in the book. One of my cameras is the size of a pack of cigarettes but does a great job on close-ups.

I loved it

Un excelente libro, con una gran calidad y excelentes fotografías. Ojalá se publicará su contraparte para el noroeste de Norteamérica.

沢山のカラー写真が載っており絵を見るだけでも楽しめます。紙は上等で本も大きくて重いので、とても持っては見られない。ぼつぼつ楽しみながら読みたいです。

J’adore ce livre! Il est gros et rempli de belles photos claires et non pas des dessins. Il m’aidera sûrement à identifier les coléoptères. Livraison en 2 jours, que demander de plus!

For some reason, my order containing 4 items was splitted in two and I had to pay transportation for this book… disapointing