Entomologists have identified over 300,000 beetle species. The group accounts for about forty percent of all known insect species.

Beetles usually possess a thickened pair of forewings covering a membranous set of hind wings. Their sensory organs are concentrated on their heads, and vibration-sensitive hairs cover theirbodies. Their feeding habits range from predation, to parasitism, to dung feeding.

The weevils displayed here are an important group within the beetle order, primarily because many feed on human crops and foodstuffs. For example, the boll weevil, with its appetite for cotton fiber, ravaged Southern farms early in the 20th century and sparked drastic changes in farming methods.