Beetles of Western North America

The companion volume for this book, Beetles of Eastern North America, began as an exploration of the beetle fauna that inhabited my newly adopted home state, Virginia. However, Beetles of Western North America is more of a homecoming. Its seeds were first sown more than five decades ago during week-long summer camping trips with my family in California on the Central Coast and along the entire length of the Sierra Nevada. Throughout the rest of the year, my parents, Lois and Ed Evans, took my sister Alice and me on weekend excursions to explore the natural wonders and historical sites throughout the Mojave Desert. My parents actively encouraged my interest in insects from a very early age. Later, while on a 4-H field trip to the Entomology Department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, I learned of the Lorquin Entomological Society that held its monthly meetings at the museum. For several years afterward, my parents made the three-hour round-trip drive numerous times so that I could attend these incredibly influential meetings.