Forty years of carabid beetle research in Europe – from taxonomy, biology, ecology and population studies to bioindication, habitat assessment and conservation

Abstract

‘Carabidologists do it all’ (Niemelä 1996a) is a phrase with which most European carabidologists are familiar. Indeed, during the last half a century, professional and amateur entomologists have contributed enormously to our understanding of the basic biology of carabid beetles. The success of the field is in no small part due to regular European Carabidologists’ Meetings, which started in 1969 in Wijster, the Netherlands, with the 14th meeting again held in the Netherlands in 2009, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first meeting and 50 years of long-term research in the Dwingelderveld. This paper offers a subjective summary of some of the major developments in carabidology since the 1960s. Taxonomy of the family Carabidae is now reasonably established, and the application of modern taxonomic tools has brought up several surprises like elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Progress has been made on the ultimate and proximate factors of seasonality and timing of reproduction, which only exceptionally show non-seasonality. Triggers can be linked to evolutionary events and plausibly explained by the “taxon cycle” theory. Fairly little is still known about certain feeding preferences, including granivory and ants, as well as unique life history strategies, such as ectoparasitism and predation on higher taxa. The study of carabids has been instrumental in developing metapopulation theory (even if it was termed differently). Dispersal is one of the areas intensively studied, and results show an intricate interaction between walking and flying as the major mechanisms. The ecological study of carabids is still hampered by some unresolved questions about sampling and data evaluation. It is recognised that knowledge is uneven, especially concerning larvae and species in tropical areas. By their abundance and wide distribution, carabid beetles can be useful in population studies, bioindication, conservation biology and landscape ecology. Indeed, 40 years of carabidological research have provided so much data and insights, that among insects - and arguably most other terrestrial organisms - carabid beetles are one of the most worthwhile model groups for biological studies.

Habitat structure and neighbor linear features influence more carabid functional diversity in olive groves than the farming system

“…In effect, previous studies have showed that the microhabitat is a determinant factor for carabid beetle diversity and community composition (e.g. Betbeder et al, 2015;Koivula et al, 1999;Kotze et al, 2011;Niemelä et al, 1992;Schirmel et al, 2015). Here we found that carabid abundance and species richness were higher in spots with denser vegetation cover (plot scale).…”

“…Negative effects of intensification are especially critical for elements of biodiversity supporting key ecosystem functions, such as carabid beetles with regards to the pest control service in agroecosystems (Kotze et al, 2011;Kromp, 1999). However, the effects of management practices may vary across different taxa and functional groups (e.g.…”

Impacts of Dryland Farm Management Systems on Weeds and Ground Beetles (Carabidae) in the Northern Great Plains

“…We estimated ground beetle activity density and community structure using pitfall traps, the most common method of passive sampling for ground dwelling insects [20]. Three pitfall traps were established at three regularly spaced subsampling locations along the main transect of each sampled field (n = 9 traps/field/sampling).…”

NEON terrestrial field observations: designing continental‐scale, standardized sampling

“…Additionally, they are common prey for small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other larger arthropods and so form an important link in ecosystem food webs (Lö vei and Sunderland 1996). Given these factors, their straightforward collection, and their sensitivity to local community differences, ground beetles have been used extensively as indicator taxa (Rainio and Niemela 2003, Kotze et al 2011, Koivula 2011. Longitudinal studies of ground beetle collections will enable inferences about invertebrate diversity under varying climate and land-use regimes.…”