This volume includes thirteen research articles focused primarily on Canadian Coleoptera. Several taxonomic and biodiversity studies examine groups within the Staphylinidae, Cerambycidae, Gyrinidae, and Haliplidae, describing new species, presenting keys to identification, mapping distributions, and reporting new provincial and national records. Other studies direct their attention to saproxylic beetles as indicators of forest disturbance, and to the beetle fauna of Rhode Island and the larger zoogeographic utility of distributional checklists. An introductory essay discusses a variety of challenges to biodiversity and biosystematics research worldwide. The contents of present volume represent stepping-stones of biodiversity research ? a discipline vital to the future of life on the planet. The book is addressed to coleopterists, taxonomists, ecologists, biogeographers and conservationists.