A comprehensive work covering the about 100,000 species of Coleoptera known to occur in the Palaearctic Region. The complete work is planned for 8 volumes that will be published in intervals of about 18 months. The information provided for each species will be the following:
- Primary taxonomic information of all available names in the genus and species levels published by the end of 1999.
- The taxonomic information below subfamily will be organized alphabetically.
- The type species of genera and subgenera, incl. synonyms, are given.
- The area covered also includes the Arabian Peninsula, Himalayas and China.
- The distributional data of species and subspecies is given per country.
- Detailed distributional information for strict endemics is given.
- Introduced species are indicated.
The catalogue is a collective work of about one hundred coleopterists from Europe, Japan, America and Australia.