Beetles are everywhere….except in the ocean.
There are currently about 400,000 species of beetle that have been described by science, but the actual total number could be as many 20,000,000 more; no-one really knows or agrees, except that there are many of them, and many more to be discovered.
They come in many sizes, shapes and forms.
The smallest at .3mm long is the Bolivian feather-wing beetle, which could run around inside this “0”, but in Hong Kong we have the tiny but beautiful Tortoise beetle, which can withdraw its head and feet and clamp down on onto the leaf surface, using its flat-flanged rim to keep off predators.
Compare this to one of Hong Kong’s largest beetles, the Unicorn beetle (here sharing some tree sap with a butterfly).
Very different again are the Tiger beetles that can run so fast (around 300km/h if they were our size), and which have the long, curved mandibles of a fierce ground predator- described as swords, with daggers attached.
