Organizing the beetle files

Not your average beetle: This Platerodrilus is from the Philippines. It is part of a mysterious group of beetles that frequently referred to as "trilobite larvae" and it puts off an odor.

When biologists set out to organize the family tree for the huge family of beetles, they ended up identifying previously unknown relationships for many of the beetle groups – somewhat like finding new cousins – and re-defining the major families, new research shows.

This beautiful longhorn beetle is from the rain forests of Malaysia.

If you’ve ever tried to understand your family tree just as far back as two or three generations, you probably have some idea of the complex situation the researchers faced. Beetles represent almost a quarter of all described species, and the task was made more complicated by the fact that some of the relationships in the beetle family were unclear.

Toby Hunt and an international group of researchers used advanced computer techniques developed for biology to update the evolutionary-relatedness – or phylogenetic tree – of most of the recognized beetle families. A phylogenetic tree is a very complicated family tree.

Researchers also studied the diversity of the beetles and determined that they are so varied because many of the beetle species have a high survival rate and that beetles can adapt to a variety of situations.

This study was published in the December 21 issue of Science.

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