RES Handbook Vol 4 Part 1. Coleoptera, Introduction and keys to families

THE Coleoptera of the British Islands have been treated in a series of comprehensive works, the most important of which are Stephens' Manual of British Coleoptera (I839), Cox's Handbook of Coleoptera (I874), Fowler's great Coleoptera of the British Islands (I887-I89I), and Joy's Practical Handbook of British Beetles (I932). Numerous British works of more limited scope have been published. Similar works on the Coleoptera of adjacent areas, including almost all the British species, are Reitter's Fauna Germanica: Kafer (I908-I9I6) and Portevin's Histoire Naturelle des Coleopteres de France (I929) ; the Dutch and Danish beetle faunas have also been the subject of systematic works. The French and German works, like the British, are now out of print and more or less difficult to obtain, and even the most recent of them are more than twenty years old . The last twenty years have seen some important advances in our knowledge of the relationships of the groups of Coleoptera, and some not inconsiderable additions to our knowledge of the beetle fauna of Great Britain.