When Dr. Arthur V. Evans’ remarkable “Beetles of Eastern North America” was published by Princeton University Press in 2014, cheers went up around the entomological world for such an extensive guide becoming available; however there were some – including yours truly – who live “out west” and may have been heard subsequently also to mutter in hushed tones “Eastern North America? Why is it always only eastern?”
“An inordinate fondness for beetles.” So J.B.S. Haldane famously quipped when asked what he thought could be deduced about God through the study of natural history. He had a point. There are 380,000 (give or take) species presently known to science – with untold thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, still undiscovered and not yet described.
J.B.S. Haldane famously said that, judging from His works, God must have an inordinate fondness for beetles, and if The Book of Beetles: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred of Nature’s Gems is any indication, so does its author Patrice Bouchard.