Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Includes tiger beetles (subfamily Cicindelinae), which were usually placed in a separate family (Cicindelidae) by older sources
Explanation of Names
Author of family is
Latreille, 1802. From New Latin
carabus, itself from Greek
karabos (καραβοσ) meaning a horned beetle, a stag-beetle, and also a type of crustacean, a spiny lobster
(1) (2). Note the connection with
scarab. See that entry for more on etymology.
Numbers
Over 3,000 species in approximately 151 genera (and 44 tribes) in North America listed at nearctica.com:
1,
2
Family CARABIDAE
Identification
Most are black or brown, but some have bright metallic colors. Mostly nocturnal or remain under cover. Characteristics of family:
conspicuous prothorax and a narrow head
legs long with spurs on the tibiae
first abdominal sternite divided by hind coxae (characteristic of whole suborder Adephaga)
antennae are thread-like arising from between the mandibles and the large compound eyes
tarsal formula 5-5-5
Distinguishing carabid from staphylinid larvae
If you have a larva in hand (well, with some magnification, probably), you can tell carabids from staphs because the former have 6-segmented legs and often 2 claws, while staphs have only 5-segmented legs and always only 1 claw. Also, nearly all carabids have the urgomphi solidly attached to segment 9 (no joint at the base), and at least some of the ones that do have them articulated basally have more than 2 segments, which staphs never have. Staphs almost always have the urogomphi articulated and they have only one or two segments; the ones with solid urogomphi are all little guys (including pselaphines) and quite different in form from carabid larvae.
(communication to Jim McClarin from Margaret Thayer, Ph.D., Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago IL)
Range
represented throughout North America and most of the world
Habitat
on the ground; active at night, and may be attracted to light
Food
Most adults rapidly pursue their prey (other insects) at night. A few eat pollen, berries, and seeds. The larvae are also predators.
Life Cycle
The larvae take one year to grow from eggs to adults.
Remarks
Carabidae has been divided into subfamilies, and each subfamily into tribes, and genera allocated to tribes. Order of subfamilies follows, mostly,
Beetles of Florida. Other Internet sources were consulted to set order of subfamilies not listed or used there, such as Promecognathinae, which seems to be placed near the Carabinae. I don't have access to
American Beetles (3), so I used Internet and print sources that I have handy. Some subfamilies were a little problematic:
Harpalinae is a large subfamily. Most of its tribes are listed in
Beetles of Florida, so I followed that as much as possible. It seems to agree with Ciegeler
(4).
Tiger Beetles (subfamily
Cicindelinae) was divided into three tribes:
Tribe Omini
-Genus Omus
-Genus Amblycheila
Tribe Megacephalini
-Genus Megacephala
Tribe Cicindelini
-Genus Cicindela
This classification is used by the
Entomology Collection--Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. That was the only list of tribes for the subfamily that I could find that appeared complete.
--P. Coin January 13, 2006
Print References
The Century Dictionary--entry for
carabus (1)
Gordh,
A Dictionary of Entomology--entry for
caraboid, etc.
(2)
American Beetles, Vol. 1, Chapter 6
(3)
Ground Beetles and Wrinkled Bark Beetles of South Carolina
(4)
Internet References
The Ground Beetles of Canada includes pinned adult images of more than 300 species, plus tribal classification and Canadian distribution of each species (CBIF)
Beetle Families of the World (a list; Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)
Insects of Cedar Creek info and links to images (U. of Minnesota)
Carabidae of Quebec info, pictures, ID characteristics to many genera (in French)
