A Natural History of the Ground-beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of America North of Mexico

Book excerpt: A summary of the natural history of the ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae; over 2400 taxa) from North America north of Mexico is presented. Under each taxon, the ecology, biology, dispersal power, collecting techniques, and selected references are given. The section on ecology comprises the following: altitudinal distribution, habitat, diel activity, and gregariousness. The section dealing with biology gives details on seasonality, mating, gravid females or oviposition, tenerals, overwintering, feeding, predation, parasitism, and defense-mechanism. The section on dispersal power, or the capability of dispersal, has been assessed when possible, using three main criteria: wing condition, flight data (including light-trapping observations), and other locomotory habits. The section on collecting techniques provides the best means of capture. The section references lists the most relevant papers, with appropriate key-words. An exhaustive bibliography dealing with the natural history of North American Carabidae is also provided. This work follows the Catalogue of Bousquet and Larochelle (1993) Catalogue of the Geadephaga (Coleoptera: Trachypachydae, Rhysodidae, Carabidae including Cicindelini of America north of Mexico, which provided nomenclatural and distributional information on North American ground-beetles. An indispensable tool for anybody interested in ground-beetles, as well as to libraries due to the increadable amount of information summarised in this book.