All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.

Beetles

Beetles represent the largest insect group with around 4,000 species in Britain and 300,000 worldwide. They are easy to recognise as their front wings are hard, covering the second pair of wings and the abdomen. All beetles have biting mouthparts. The beetle species in this gallery are grouped into families which are presented in taxonomic order according to the Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles (Duff 2012).

An annotated Checklist to the Beetles of VC55. G.L. Finch, March 2025

Identification help:

Facebook Group: Leicestershire and Rutland Coleoptera Recording Scheme

Facebook Group: Beetles of Britain and Ireland

click on the section headers below for more details

Coccinellidae - Ladybirds

The following books are recommended:

  • Field Guide to the Ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland by Helen Roy and Peter Brown, illustrated by Richard Lewington (Bloomsbury, 2018)
  • Micro ladybirds of Britain and Ireland. Justamond & Williams (FSC 2025) ISBN 9781917154147