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Carabid beetles

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The purpose of TFBIS (Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information Systems) funding for digitising specimen records of carabid beetles was to improve access to information about this important group of conspicuous beetles.

Carabid beetles are among the best represented insect groups in New Zealand entomological museums and collections. Carabids show a marked diversity of taxa and striking ecological preferences, which make them especially suitable for studying the ecological and physical adaptations required to cope with environmental demands. As well, their populations may be sampled with relative ease by reliable quantitiative methods, and they have potential use as biodindicators and biocontrol agents. In New Zealand conservation biologists have already listed many, often large-sized species, as rare or threatened and worthy of protection (Larochelle & Larivière 2001). Currently there are 86 genera and 461 species recognised (Larochelle & Larivière 2007), and there are likely to be 800 species. Endemism is high, with more than 90% of species and 58% of genera found nowhere else in the world. The New Zealand carabid website provides a checklist of species, images, and a virtual identification guide to genera.

TFBIS funding was provided to record collecting events from major collections in New Zealand, so as to achieve as wide a coverage as possible. Georeferencing was to be provided. A collecting event was considered to be a record of a species collected from a locality on a particular date by a collector. Each collecting event may consist of a single specimen or many specimens.

In total, there are about 10,500 collecting events, referring to about 21,000 specimens. This information is provided on separate web pages for each collection of the 3 collections involved in the projects. In addition, the same information is available as downloadable Excel spreadsheets to allow users to rearrange the information for their own purposes.

Links to specimen information for different collections

These specimen records are provided on the understanding that the names with specimens reflect the curation status of the collections in 2007. The identity of all specimens has not necessarily been validated by a carabid specialist. Any queries should be directed to the curator providing the information.

References

Larochelle, A.; Larivière, M.-C. 2001. Carabidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): catalogue. Fauna of New Zealand 43, 285 p.

Larochelle, A.; Larivière, M.-C. 2007. Carabidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): synopsis of supraspecific taxa. Fauna of New Zealand 60, 188 p.