The hyperdiverse beetle family Carabidae is one of the largest families of Coleoptera. Nearly 10% of described carabid species are classified in the tribe Pterostichini or tribes historically closely associated with Pterostichini. Beetles in these groups are found worldwide and in habitats from ocean beaches to high-elevation glacial edges. Pterostichines are often abundant and local species richness can be exceptionally high. I will present an overview of the diversity, biogeography, and current phylogenetic arrangement of the included taxa. I will discuss some of the many amazing aspects of the group’s natural history including cases of mate marking during copulation, secondary sexual characters, mate guarding, burrow construction, maternal care for eggs and larvae, and apparent stridulatory structures. I will introduce the Australian trichosternus group and discuss the conservation status of these imperiled beetles and how fundamental taxonomic science led to gaining protection for some species. I will make the case that taxonomy has a unique role among the life sciences to explore, describe, classify, and provide an understanding of the diversity of life, at and above the species level, focusing on individual characters, and within the context of evolutionary history.

Recently, many habitat corridors have been constructed in Korea, but the effect of corridor types, i.e. overpasses and underpasses, on arthropods was poorly examined. Therefore, we compared the effect of habitat corridor types in terms of abundance, species richness, and composition of carabid beetles. As a result, 3,737 ground beetles belonging to 60 species were collected by pitfall trapping across the northwestern forest–habitat corridor–southeastern forest transects in 2015. Abundance and species richness of total carabid beetles in underpasses were significantly lower than overpasses. And species composition of underpasses corridors was significantly different compared to other habitats, such as overpasses and forests. Although more samples are needed to understand the effect of corridor types, the current underpasses may be unfriendly structures to movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as carabid beetles.

This study was conducted to investigate the community structure and species distribution of ground beetle assemblages in Yeongwol-gun (19 sites) and Donggang river basin area (6 sites). Ground beetles were collected by pitfall traps from 19 study sites from 2013 to 2014. A total of 67 species were identified from 9,710 collected ground beetles. Species richness in mountainous forests of Yeongwol-gun (55.8±1.90) estimated by rarefaction curves was higher than those in Donggang river areas (28.0±0.06). Four dominant species, Synuchus nitidus (3,974 individuals) and Synuchus cycloderus (2,595 individuals), Synuchus sp.1 (830 individuals), and Eucarabus cartereti cartereti (434 individuals) were occupied 80.7% of total, but their relative abundance were different according to geographical locations. Species richness of total carabid beetles was positively related to elevation (linear regression, F1, 23 = 22.41, adj. r2=0.47, P < 0.001) and it showed a U-shaped curve with longitudinal gradient (curvilinear regression, F2, 22 = 10.82, adj. r2=0.50, P < 0.001). And species richness maps that are focused on south-western areas of Gangwon-do including Yeongwol-gun, Jeongseon-gun, and Pyeongchang-gun were generated using ArcGIS 10.1. In species composition, longitude and elevation were best predictors to determine the distribution of carabid beetles by MRT analysis (Error = 0.517, CV Error = 1.04). These results indicated that habitat management regimes for biodiversity conservation should be conducted in considering geography and topography, although further studies are still necessary on the distributional pattern of other insect taxa and the relationship between biodiversity and more environmental variables.

We've collected litter-dwelling predatory arthropods (spiders and carabid beetles) by using pitfall traps at four different fire intensity treatment areas (control, ground fire, canopy fire, and canopy fire with plantation) at four different regional areas in 2005. We analyzed the arthropod community structures with PC-Ord for the difference of arthropod community among the various fire intensity treatments and control. Our objective was to verify if there was any difference between fired areas and non fired area (control) and between canopy fire with plantation and canopy fire without plantation. From our arthropod community structures, we found there was distinct community composition difference between fired areas and non-fired area as well as between control and canopy fire treatment with plantation or non-plantation. However, we are not sure yet that there was any distinct difference between control and ground fire treatments. Our results from the multivariate analysis, Non-parametric Multidimensional Scaling ordination, could be relatively conclude that the main difference of arthropod community between fired areas and non-fired areal and canopy fire with plantation or non-plantation was caused from the difference of arthropod habitat pattern such as litter depth, litter volumem, CWD cover or volume, and et. al. When we compared to control and other treatments, we could also conclude that the canopy fire treatment with non-plantation was relatively closed to control than the canopy fire treatment with plantation.

습지의 서식지 특성 및 환경 지표종을 찾기 위해 부산과 경남에 위치한 습지 유형이 다른 하천습지, 산지습지, 하구습지에서 딱정벌레류를 조사하였다. 조사결과 딱정벌레과, 먼지벌레과, 폭탄먼지벌레과에 속한 22속 28종이 채집되었고, 종 다양성은 하천습지(우포늪, 화포늪), 산지늪(재약산늪), 하구습지(낙동강하구) 순으로 나타났다. 딱정벌레류의 종조성은 각 습지에서 독립적으로 나타났는데(χ2=1716.8, P〈0.01), 하천습지와 산지늪이 가장 다른 종조성을 보였다. 지표종 분석을 통해 각 유형의 습지를 대표하는 2~6종의 딱정벌레류를 지표종으로 선출하였는데, 지표종들은 토성과 토양습도, 인위적 환경변화에 대해 민감하게 반응하여 습지환경변화를 모니터링할 수 있는 것으로 보인다. 추후 생활사나 먹이특성 등딱정벌레류의 각종별로 자세한생태적 특성이 연구되면 지표종으로 딱정벌레류를 일반화하여 여러 서식지에서 활용할 수 있을 것으로 보인다.