Introduction and Objectives of the Scarabaeoid Identification Guide

The growing demand for knowledge of biodiversity around the world has heightened the significance of systematics information. Electronic dissemination of data provides the ability to access information as never before. The objective of this web site is to provide a comprehensive systematic overview for the approximately 600 genera of New World scarabaeoid beetles and to provide a foundation for a future comprehensive treatment of world scarabaeoids.

The aim of the guide is to facilitate identification of the approximately 600 genera of scarabaeoids from the Americas (many of which are currently unidentifiable). The guide and database are useful for people engaged in agriculture, habitat surveys, conservation studies, biodiversity research, collection management, evolutionary studies, taxonomy, and comparative biology. This work is a scientific publication and should be PROPERLY ACKNOWLEDGED. The site was initiated as part of a NSF-PEET grant to former curators B. Ratcliffe and M. Jameson. It continues under the current curator M.J. Paulsen and UNSM affiliates Aura Paucar and Andrew Smith, as time permits as the systematics of a group this large is a monumental undertaking.

The classification follows that of Lawrence and Newton (1995). Not included in our treatment are taxa that are exclusively Old World in distribution: Belohinidae and the subfamilies Pachypodinae, Dynamopodinae, Euchirinae, Phaenomeridinae (all in the family Scarabaeidae). The Taxa Map displays all scarab taxa currently in the site.

This web site is made possible by the contributions and support of many people. We welcome additional scarab workers who wish to contribute to this web site. Aura Paucar-Cabrera (University of Northern Loja, Ecuador) designs and upgrades this website.

Scarabaeoidea of the New World (Caribbean, North, Central, and South America)

References Cited
LAWRENCE, J. F. and A. F. NEWTON. 1995. Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and data on family-group names), pp. 779-1006. In J. Pakaluk and S. A. Slipinski (eds.), Biology, Phylogeny, and Classification of Coleoptera. Papers Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN, Warszawa. 1,092 pp.