Beetles

Beetles are a diverse and wide-ranging class of insects in the order Coleoptera generally characterized by a particularly hard exoskeleton and hard forewings, and often an indistinct separation of body segments. Quotes thumb| An inordinate fondness for beetles. J. B. S. Haldane, a possibly apocryphal reply to theologians who inquired if there was anything that could be concluded about the Creator from the study of creation; as described in "Homage to Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of animals" by G. Evelyn Hutchinson in American Naturalist (May-June 1959); This alludes to the fact that there are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal. O'er folded blooms On swirls of musk,The beetle booms adown the glooms And bumps along the dusk. James Whitcomb Riley, The Beetle; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 64. And often, to our comfort, shall we findThe sharded beetle in a safer holdThan is the full-winged eagle. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act III, scene 3, line 19. And the poor beetle that we tread upon,In corporal sufferance finds a pang as greatAs when a giant dies. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act III, scene 1, line 79. External links beetle Category:Insects