This is the fourth volume of a comprehensive series which covers about 100,000 species of Coleoptera known to occur in the Palaearctic Region. The information provided for each species is as follows: primary taxonomic information of all available names in the genus and species levels published by the end of 1999; the taxonomic information below subfamily, organized alphabetically; and the type species of genera and subgenera, including synonyms. The area covered includes the Arabian Peninsula, the Himalayas, and China, and the distributional data of species and subspecies is given per country. Detailed distributional information for strict endemics is given, and introduced species are indicated. The catalogue is a collective work of about one hundred coleopterists from Europe, Japan, America, and Australia.