Beetles
Colorado beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Subclass:	Pterygota
Infraclass:	Neoptera
Superorder:	Endopterygota
Order:	Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758
Suborders
Adephaga Archostemata Myxophaga Polyphaga † Protocoleoptera

Beetles, the order Coleoptera, are the largest group of insects. There are 350,000 different species of beetles which have been named: about 40% of all known insects. There are an estimated 800,000 to a million living species. Beetles live almost everywhere, though not in the ocean or in places that are very cold, such as Antarctica.

Beetles went through a massive adaptive radiation early in their evolutionary history. The evolution of flowering plants helped drive the diversification of beetles. Four of the six biggest families of beetles mainly eat flowering plants.