North American Beetles [iPad]

Insects are the animal class with more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms. One order in this class are the beetles (Coleoptera) with some 400,000 described species, of which some estimated 28,000 species are native to North America. Everybody can easily imagine what task it would be to develop an app (or create a text book) that covers each and every species complete with high-resolution pictures and detailed descriptions.

This app serves as an introduction to the North American beetle species and shows over one hundred different beetles. The species have been selected as typical representatives of over a hundred known beetle families. The beetles in this app are not grouped according to their scientific classification, but rather according to more common features, for example whether they are considered as "good" or "bad" garden beetles, i.e. whether they cause damages to garden plants or feed on other garden pests and, thus, are to be considered "good" for the garden.

The information has been carefully collected and edited and provides a good overview for anybody who is interested in knowing more about the North American beetles or to identify them when encountering them in the backyard or anywhere else in nature. Although scientific names are included and used throughout the textual description, this app is not aimed at specialists and biologists, but at nature lovers without scientific education and background. The explanation of the scientific terms are included in a "Entomological Dictionary" with more than 600 terms and explanations.

The app describes over one hundred species in more detail with several pictures for each beetle.