Abstract: Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden is located in the New Territories, on the mainland of Hong Kong. During 1990-1995 impact flight (IM) and ultraviolet light (UV) traps were set for several consecutive periods to study abundance, diversity, and phenology of the Class Insecta. We report here these features for the Order Coleoptera and some major beetle families, and compare variation in these features for beetles between IM and UV traps. About 13 000 specimens were collected belonging to 45 families (subfamilies) and 231 species. About 25% of these families are recorded from Hong Kong for the first time: Alleculidae, Biphyllidae, Byrrhidae, Colydiidae, Corylophidae, Cryptophagidae, Hydroscaphidae, Lagriidae, Lathridiidae, Limnichidae, and Zopheridae.Most of the beetles collected in the secondary forest are woodborers both in number and kind (either xylophagous or saprophytophagous), in contrast with the majority of phytophagous beetles collected by sweep nets in a nature reserve across the border in nearby mainland China. The Margalef (1958) richness index indicates that Mordellidae, Coccinellidae, Curculionidae, Cerambycidae, Chrysomelidae, Elateridae, Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Corylophidae, Buprestidae, Nitidulidae, Scolytidae, and Tenebrionidae are the richest families in species in decreasing order (d>1.5). The ShannonWiener (1949) diversity index indicates that Mordellidae, Coccinellidae, Curculionidae, Staphylinidae, Elateridae, Chrysomelidae, Cerambycidae, Carabidae, Nitidulidae, and Buprestidae are the most diverse families in decreasing order (H′>1.5). The Pielou (1975) evenness index indicates that Mordellidae, Coccinellidae, Curculionidae, Staphylinidae, Elateridae, Chrysomelidae, and Cerambycidae are the most balanced families in diversity and abundance in decreasing order (J>0.3). The BergerParker (1970) dominance index indicates that Scolytidae, Cerambycidae, Bostrichidae, Scarabaeidae, and Curculionidae are the most abundant families in number of individuals in decreasing order (D>1.5%). Overall, Cerambycidae, Coccinellidae, Curculionidae, Mordellidae, Scarabaeidae, and Scolytidae are the major families in the secondary forest with number of species 15 or number of individuals 200. Over 85% of all specimens were bark beetles during the study period, suggesting an outbreak of Scolytidae in the secondary forest.Seasonal patterns of the Coleoptera are conspicuous. Abundance of beetles began to increase in February and drastically decreased in August, but peak occurrence differed between IM and UV traps. Those caught by UV had a distinct peak in June, while those caught by IM peaked in July. Beetles in each of the major families also showed different seasonal patterns of abundance.Families with one single species comprise over 50% of the beetle families. Captures by different traps are often mutually exclusive. About 30% of the beetle families were caught by only IM traps, while 10% were caught by only UV traps. Of the remaining 26 families, 11 had at least one species that was mutually exclusively captured by different traps. In total, 65% of the 45 families contained species trapped by one method but not by the other. Scolytidae had the greatest abundance in both IM and UV traps. Mordellidae had the highest species diversity in IM traps, while Coccinellidae had the highest species diversity in UV traps based on the richness, diversity, and evenness indices. The value (1.67) of the ShannonWiener index for the order Coleoptera is within the normal range, but lower than the neighboring area where beetle specimens were collected by sweep nets.IM captures overwhelmingly outnumbered UV captures. This could be the result of more IM traps and longer operating periods than UV traps. However, the values of the ShannonWiener diversity and Pielou evenness indices are about 85% and 120% higher for UV than IM traps, respectively. This indicates that it is important to use different trapping meth