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Identifying Features:  Large beetle with a purple tinge to the edge of its elytra.

This garden dwelling flightless beetle is native to Europe and  is commonly found under rocks and wood in gardens.  It is the gardeners friend, as it eats young slugs, and other insects. It can sometimes be seen during the day but it is more commonly out at night, spending the daytime under cover.  Some individuals are very purple tinged and a few even show green or coppery hues.  This beetle can wander hundreds of meters in a nights travel and they are active starting in February.  The female lays eggs in the spring which hatch into larva that are also predators.  The larva live in the upper soil for two years then turn into adults.
 

Identifying Features:  Shiny black with lines on its elyatra.

This is one of dozens of ground beetles of the family Carabidae. They live under logs and rocks, often in gardens or forests.  Eggs are  laid under or around decaying wood, or in soil duff. Larva are usually predators and typically take two years to develop into adults.  Most are nocturnal and various shades of black or very dark brown. 
 

For a detailed and technical key of many species of Caribidae click here.

Identifying Features: Large beetle with long antennae, narrow head and long and slender legs, oval  reddish elytra upturned at the edges.

This active predator can sometimes be found walking the forest floor during the day, although usually it hunts at night.  Its long, narrow head is perfectly designed to fit inside the opening of land snails which make up most its food. This species also eats slugs and once I watched 4 of them eating a large brown garden slug.  In addition to slugs and snails they also feast on small bugs and even fallen fruit, such as apples. I once found a discarded banana with a half dozen of these beetles having a feast.  In forested habitats these beetles can be numerous and they wander several hundred meters searching for prey.  In late summer and early fall they search out mates and are more easily seen.  The larva are also large and can inflict a memorable bite it handled carelessly.

Identifying Features:  Large mandibles, bulging eyes,  heavily pitted elytra.

The massive mandibles of this beetle advertise its dominance as a predator. They are slow for a tiger beetle and dark, more like the typical ground beetles. But oh, what jaws!  Since they are not very fast they are ambushers, laying in wait in a vertical burrow until a meal wanders past them, then they pounce.  The Larvae are large and also predatory and also live in a burrow.  The hind end of the larva is attached securely and the larvae pops out of its burrow to grab prey then pulls it back into its lair to eat.  This beetle frequents both meadow and forest, often hunting along fallen logs.

Identifying Features:  Slightly irredescent, long legs, white markings on elytra.

This beetle is found in open sandy riversides and sand bars, or along mountain trails in dusty, sandy locations, often in great numbers in May and June.  It has large eyes and huge mandibles. It is, by size, the fastest animal in the world, in fact it can run so fast that its eyes can't keep up, so it has to stop and reorient itself while chasing down insect prey.  It often flies as you approach, and most people pass them off as some kind of fly. They often have bright metallic green undersides which sometimes flash as they fly and turn.  The larvae are also predatory and live in vertical burrows with just their jaws at the surface, snatching any passing insect that is small enough to subdue.

Identifying Features: Small oval beetle, often red or orange with spots.

These beetles, with their bright red and pattern elytra are the ambassadors of the bug world. Even people with severe bug hatred seem to like these little jewels.  There is a wide variety of ladybug beetles in our area, perhaps as many as a hundred species, and many of the species are exotics, introduced for crop control of aphids and other insect pests.  They also enjoy a meal of pollen, and sometimes like mold and fungi.  These beetles are found world wide and there are many stories about them. Often they seen as symbols of good fortune and a new fad has been to release them at weddings as a good luck offering to the newlyweds.

These beetles congregate in large masses in the winter months, sometimes in buildings or houses. They are often captured for sale from these masses and if you buy lady bugs for garden pest control you will probably be disappointed because once released they tend to disburse, since they do not want company while feeding.  They also migrate, some traveling several hundred miles. When disturbed they emit a fluid from their knees which makes them distasteful to predators, and this fluid can stain paint or clothing.

The Photo is of a Multicolored, Asian Ladybug beetle.

Identifying Features:  Large size, brown and white stripes, silky hairs on sides.

This impressive beetle is most readily seen in July and August as the males fly about in search of females. They are attracted to night lights, and the large parking lights of a store complex can be swarmed with these.  The males antennae are large and antler like, and they are used to sniff out the scent of females. This beetle lives as a larvae in the soil for three years before coming an adult and during this time it eats roots, which does not endear them to tree crop growers.  The adults feed on conifer needles during their brief life above ground and also can feed on walnuts or apple tree leaves. If you dare to pick up one of these beetles it will probably make a loud wankkkk sort of squeak, kind of like a toy baby doll.

Identifying Features: Long antennae, Long narrow form, yellowish white with black bands.

These beetle is most often encountered as it nectars on plants. It is a wood boring beetle, the larvae spend two years under the bark trees.  They can often be found on Thimbleberry and Cow Parsnip flowers.

Identifying Features:  Long beetles with pointed spiney edges of the pronotum.

These beetles get their name from their ability to lock and unlock a body segment with an  audible click which can propel the beetle a couple of inches. This is most often used when the insect has landed on its back although it is also an escape mechanism.  The larva of this species are call wireworms and are thin and many are fierce predators in the upper soil layers.

Identifying Features: Iong, rectangular beetles with long antennae and a rounded pronotum.

These insects get their name from a British specimen which is bright red and reminiscent of the "red coats" of the British army.  The beetles are often found nectaring on spring flowers. They are predators and many species eat aphids, or gather and tend aphids for the honeydew they secret.  The larva live in the soil and sometimes in the fall may cluster close to the edge of houses, perhaps because it is a bit warmer.

Identifying Features:  Long snout with clubbed antennae coming from below the eyes.

These small beetles make up the most diverse family on planet earth with more than 60,000 species world-wide.  They are plant eaters for the most part,  the adults eating leaves and shoots, the curled larva eating roots.  They are a significant pest for ornamental rose growers and they also readily infest grain, flour, oats and breakfast cereals.  In 1992 a European weevil was released into wetlands to control the invasive plant Purple Loosetrife

Identifying Features:  Short wing covers, many segments of the abdomen exposed, abdomen ending in a point.

These are ground dwelling beetles most often found in leaf litter. There are more than 3,000 species and the larger species often carry their abdomen curled up in the air, almost like a scorpion. They are predators and have impressive mandibles and the larger species can deliver a memorable bite.  They are also scavengers and can sometimes be found in large numbers in well decayed dead animals.  Ocypus is a European import and will defend itself by curling up its tail, and if prodded with a stick it will exude a foul smelling liquid from the tip of its abdomen. You do not want to get this in your eyes.

Identifying Features: Bright metallic green and gold colors, ribbed elytra

This beetle spends most of its life as a larva, burrowing in dead wood. The larva has the remarkable ability to go into a sort of suspended animation for apparently decades, then pupate and become an adult.  There have been reports of beams which were installed for 30 years which then have beetles crawl out of them.  The adult flies to the south side of trees looking for mates.  They often will congregate in an area that just burned, apparently able to "smell" smoke for several miles. 

Identifying Features:  Large beetle with distinctive black and white bands.

This impressive beetle is most often seen in the spring, where mating groups will congregate on fallen alders.  They also will fly to lights and have been known to be attracted to fresh paint.  The adults lay eggs under the bark of fallen alders, ash and willows and the larva bore into the dead tree and honeycomb the upper layers.

Identifying Features:  Black with red or orange marks on the elytra with knobs at the end of the antennae

Dead animals are the breeding ground for this species and the beetles will mate and lay eggs on the decaying carcass. If the carcass is small enough, such as mouse, the pair will dig the ground under it under the carcass is buried. They also patrol the carcass and eat any fly larva or eggs they can find. When the Carrion beetle eggs hatch the larva then consume as much of the carcass as they can, pupate then become adults.

 If you are able to get one of these beetles under a microscope you will  find they are covered with several tiny mites which hitchhike on the beetle from carcass to carcass.

Identifying Features: Black beetle with red stripe on the pronotum edges.

This beetle seeks out mates in June and can be abundant around road, vacant lots and other open places that have conifer forests nearby.  They are in the firefly family but do not have the ability to luminesce.  The larva are predatory and it seems the adults live only a short time, only to mate, and appear not to eat.

Identifying Features: Bright red with black antennae and raised lines on the elytra.

This is a beetle of conifer forests and its red color makes it stand out as it rests on tree trunks or vegetation.  The larva lives under the bark of dead trees and preys on smaller invertebrates.  The adults occasionally feed on tree sap and are active in lowland forests in late April and May.

Identifying Features: Tiny, metallic blue-green beetle.

The flea beetles are about 1/4" in length and like click beetles can spring themselves a couple times their body lengths.  The adults eat holes in the leaves of alders, appearing in  spring on warm days just as the alders leaf out. Sometimes they over winter in groups and as they disperse in the spring you can find several in a small area.  The adults lay eggs on the leaves and the larva mine the leaf tissue between the veins leaving a leaf looking like a skeleton.  Sometimes they can infest a stand of alders and large numbers will eat most of the trees leaves.  This apparently does not kill the tree, it goes dormant until the next year. Studies have shown that trees that have been defoliated put extra chemicals in the leaves the next year to deter further leave loss.