Beetles: Native Pollinators

Stop! Don’t step on that beetle. Many beetles are pollinators. Without them, we wouldn't have magnolia flowers, palm trees, or the fruit of the pawpaw. Beetles can be pests and also helpful. Farmers use ladybug beetles to eat insects that are eating their plants. In the United States, there are more than 30,000 native beetles—and more are discovered everyday. These native pollinators are small in size but giants in the insect world. Native Pollinators: Beetles is a good place to start learning about these amazing insects.

Beetles scuttle past bees and butterflies to claim the spotlight in this volume in the Native Pollinators series (8 titles). Its nine double-page spreads all sport the same layout: a magnified stock photo that occupies two-thirds of the spread, with large text printed on a picnic-blanket-like background for the remaining third. Pollination is explained in very general terms, along with beetles’ roles in this process as carriers of pollen. The text then lists a few flower characteristics that these bugs find particularly appealing (smelly, spicy, bowl shaped). Five helpful beetles are identified in the various photos—a spotted cucumber beetle, firefly, ladybug, leatherwing beetle, and soldier beetle—as is one harmful pest, the boll weevil. The final page identifies beetle anatomy in a labeled diagram and its more-scientific accompanying text.”--Booklist, October 1, 2019, Julia Smith