Introducing the Website

The purpose of this website is to provide the amateur entomologists with an easy tool to study a group of beetles called Calosoma. The abundant available individual descriptions and partial revisions are not always easy to find and above all they lack an updated general revision, after that of Jeannel (1940) that dates back more than seventy years ago.
Starting out from that revision, which still represents a good reference due its general approach, subsequent works have been discussed, as to whether to accept their conclusions or not, on a case by case basis. As a matter of fact the present work is not a scientific revision in itself, but it only aims to provide criteria to allow the amateur to navigate among the species mentioned in the literature.
Where the descriptions have been accumulated to take into account the individual variability or the variability of populations, the new taxa mentioned in the literature are reported and discussed during the handling of the species to which most likely they can be referred, but not illustrated separately, in order not to complicate the discussion . Such a choice will not prevent to investigate the matter further for those who wish to do so. The bibliography in the Appendix may be directly used for the purpose. For each considered species or subspecies a photographic image is provided (additional images are given if required by the variability of individual or geographic variation). The images are accompanied by brief notes that describe the species; a longer note is provided when it is necessary to deepen its systematic position.

How to find the species you want:
The site is organized into separate files for each species including possible subspecies you can get to the files of a species in two ways:
clicking the subgenre to which the species belongs (list on the left side of the screen) and then by clicking on the species name;
or going to the Index of Scientific Names and then click directly on the name of the species

As regards to other general information:
Systematic framework briefly discusses the current state of the genre and then explains the criteria used in this text as regard the systematic approach
Biological notes reports some general observations on the biology of the genre
collection acronyms refers to the abbreviations used in the lists of examined specimens and literature's data in the files of each species
Bibliography lists all the bibliography cited in the systematic part and some general studies where there are important references to genre Calosoma

For more and more detailed information
We suggest to consult the recently printed book Calosoma of the World where every species and subspecies recognized as valid, is discussed, including synonymies, systematic position, biological notes, and its distribution, complemented by 48 maps, and an updated exhaustive bibliography. It contains also keys to the subgenera and to all the species, and 550 photographs, in 38 high-quality colour plates, that illustrate all of the taxa considered, including many type specimens.
The book can be required to Natura Edizioni Scientifiche