Hardback - October 2013
This three-volume series represents a comprehensive treatment of the beetles of Australia, a relatively under-studied fauna that includes many unusual and unique lineages found nowhere else on Earth.
Volume 1 contains keys to all 117 beetle families found in Australia, and includes over 1100 illustrations of adults, larvae and anatomical structures. This volume is based in part on Lawrence & Britton's out-of-print Australian Beetles, but is fully updated and expanded.
The biology and morphology for all major beetle lineages is described and illustrated, along with anatomical terms which clarify the characters and terminology used in the keys; few other resources for beetle identification include such a detailed morphological background. A chapter on the fossil record is also included, and family sections provide full descriptions of adults and larvae, including the world distribution of each family.
The revised identification keys (currently recognised as one of the most valuable keys worldwide) will aid quarantine agents, biologists and students in identifying members of the most species-rich order of animals.
2014 Whitley Award Commendation for Taxonomic Zoology
This three-volume series represents a comprehensive treatment of the beetles of Australia, a relatively under-studied fauna that includes many unusual and unique lineages found nowhere else on Earth.
Volume 1 contains keys to all 117 beetle families found in Australia, and includes over 1100 illustrations of adults, larvae and anatomical structures. This volume is based in part on Lawrence & Britton's out-of-print Australian Beetles, but is fully updated and expanded.
The biology and morphology for all major beetle lineages is described and illustrated, along with anatomical terms which clarify the characters and terminology used in the keys; few other resources for beetle identification include such a detailed morphological background. A chapter on the fossil record is also included, and family sections provide full descriptions of adults and larvae, including the world distribution of each family.
The revised identification keys (currently recognised as one of the most valuable keys worldwide) will aid quarantine agents, biologists and students in identifying members of the most species-rich order of animals.
"This is a beautifully produced book with relevance beyond Australia. It is
very clearly laid out and with a profusion of excellent and well-chosen
illustrations."
Robert Angus, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society,
2014, 171, pp. 226
"the present volume is an outstanding textbook of coleopterology and for many
years will remain the bible for researchers interested in any aspect of
Australian beetles."
Martin Baehr, Quarterly Review of Biology, March
2015, p. 101
Adam Slipinski completed his PhD and DSc in Poland where he worked for 20 years at the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw and held a joint appointment as the professor of biology at the University of Zielona Gora teaching entomology and environmental biology. He is the author of over 100 research publications, editor of a two-volume book on the phylogeny and classification of beetles and an author of a book on Australian ladybird beetles. Adam's research concentrates on the phylogeny and higher classification of beetles. With John Lawrence he is coordinating the morphological part of the Beetle Tree of Life project.