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Family Carabidae - Ground Beetles
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Adephaga (Ground and Water Beetles)
Family Carabidae (Ground Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Includes tiger beetles ( Cicindelinae), often treated as a separate family in the past; a recent trend (not followed here) is to treat Rhysodidae within the Carabidae, too Numbers by far the largest family of Adephaga and one of the largest insect families with over 30,000 spp. worldwide (1); ca. 2700 spp. in almost 200 genera (assigned to 14 subfamilies and 47 tribes) in our area (2); 930 spp. occur in Canada (3)
sample local faunas: WI 489 spp. (4), GA 531, AL 345, FL 420 (5), SC 479 (6), NH ~430 (7), OK 354 (8), CA >700 (9)...
Overview of our fauna:
Family Carabidae
Taxa not yet in the guide: native (*), non-native (+); most names are linked to images available on other sites.
Tribe Bembidiini Amerizus, Asaphidion, Bembidion, Cillenus, Phrypeus, Mioptachys, Tachyta, Elaphropus, Micratopus, Pericompsus, +Porotachys, Polyderis, Tachys, Paratachys, Micranillodes, *Anillodes, Anillinus, *Serranillus, *Anillaspis, *Horologion
Tribe Pterostichini Abaris, *Ophryogaster, Poecilus, Lophoglossus, Piesmus, Gastrellarius, *Stomis, Stereocerus, Myas, Pterostichus, Cyclotrachelus, Abax
Subtribe Harpalina Stenomorphus, Amblygnathus, Athrostictus, Selenophorus, Discoderus, Trichotichnus, Aztecarpalus, Piosoma, Euryderus, Ophonus, Harpalus, Hartonymus, Cratacanthus
Tribe Platynini Calathus, Laemostenus, Synuchus, Olisthopus, Tetraleucus, Anchomenus, Sericoda, *Elliptoleus, Atranus, Rhadine, Tanystoma, +Paranchus, Oxypselaphus, Agonum, Platynus, Metacolpodes
Identification Keys to taxa can be found in:
American Beetles (2) (keys to NA genera)
Ground Beetles and Wrinkled Bark Beetles of South Carolina (6) (SC, good for southeast fauna as well)
The ground-beetles (Carabidae, excl. Cicindelinae) of Canada and Alaska, parts 1—6 (10) (focuses more on northern fauna)
Florida ground beetles (5) (key to genera and species of a few genera in Florida)
Illustrated Identification Guide to Adults and Larvae of Northeastern North American Ground Beetles (11) (northeastern fauna)
The Beetles of Northeastern North America (12) (older with many errors, but still useful for northeastern fauna)
The Beetles of the Pacific Northwest Pt 1 (13) (northwestern fauna)
Some European sites give a good idea of Holarctic carabid diversity at a glance, e.g.:
Representative galleries of NA species are provided in (3)(5)(1)(11)
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. (Margaret Thayer, pers. comm. to Jim McClarin; also see Margaret's comment) Food Most adults rapidly pursue their prey (other insects) at night. A few eat pollen, berries, and seeds. Most larvae are predators, but some are herbivores or parasitoids. Remarks adventive elements of Canadian fauna reviewed in (14)See Also Darkling Beetles ( Tenebrionidae)
Other beetles superficially resembling carabids:
Works Cited | 14. | Synopsis of adventive species of Coleoptera (Insecta) recorded from Canada. Part 1: Carabidae
By Klimaszewski J., Langor D., Batista R., Duval J.-A., Majka C.G., Scudder G.G.E., Bousquet Y. | |
Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm Additional contributions by cotinis, Robin McLeod, Phillip Harpootlian, McClarinJ, Chris Wirth, Bbarnd, Chuck Entz, Tim Moyer, Peter Messer, t.loh, v belov, Abigail ParkerLast updated 21 May, 2012 - 1:19pm |
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