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The Catalogue of „Pompiliu Lie” Carabus Collection from the world (except Romania) includes 5255 specimens (2527 males and 2728 females) which belong to 76 subgenera and 621 species and subspecies, after the nomenclature has been updated. The specimens came from four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, North America) and 54 countries. Most specimens were obtained through exchanges with entomologists and enthusiasts of the genus Carabus from all over the world. This collection contains 38 paratypes of 21 species and subspecies.

In a region with poor soil fertility, low annual precipitation and large areas of homogenous Pinus sylvestris L. forests, conservation of old sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) trees is one option to enrich structure and species richness. We studied the affinities of Carabus coriaceus, C. violaceus, C. hortensis and C. arvensis for specific tree species and the resultant intra- and interspecific interactions. We focused on their temporal and spatial distributions. Pitfall traps were used as a surface-related capture method on a grid over an area of three hectares. Generalised linear models and generalised linear geostatistical models were used to analyse carabid activity densities related to distance-dependent spatial effects corresponding to tree zones (oak, oak–pine, pine). The results demonstrated significant spatial affinities among these carabids, especially for females and during the period of highest activity. Individuals of C. coriaceus showed a tendency to the oak zone and C. hortensis exhibited a significant affinity to the oak–pine mixture. Imagines of C. arvensis and C. violaceus were more closely related to pine. The observed temporal and spatial coexistence of the different Carabus species reveals that single admixed old oak trees can support greater diversity within pine-dominated forests.

We have sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of (Coleoptera: Carabidae). This mitogenome is a total of 16,794 bp in length and encodes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA unit genes ( and ), and one non-coding control region (CR). The Bayesian inference phylogenetic analysis confirmed the taxonomic status of , showing its close relationship with and . This study provides the first comprehensive characterization of the mitochondrial genome of , providing valuable insights for phylogenetic systematic studies within the subfamily Carabinae.

Evidence that terrestrial gastropods are able to detect chemical cues from their predators is obvious yet scarce, despite the scientific relevance of the topic to enhancing our knowledge in this area. This study examines the influence of cuticular extracts from predacious ground beetles (Carabus auratus, Carabus hispanus, Carabus nemoralis and Carabus coriaceus), and a neutral insect species (Musca domestica) on the shelter-seeking behavior of naive slugs (Deroceras reticulatum). Slugs, known to have a negative phototactic response, were exposed to light, prompting them to make a choice between either a shelter treated with a cuticular extract or a control shelter treated with pure ethyl alcohol. Their behavioral responses were recorded for one hour in order to determine their first shelter choice, their final position, and to compare the percentage of time spent in the control shelters with the time spent in the treated shelters.The test proved to be very effective: slugs spent most of the experiment in a shelter. They spent significantly more time in the control shelter than in the shelter treated with either C. nemoralis (Z = 2.43; p = 0.0151; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test) or C. coriaceus cuticular extracts (Z = 3.31; p<0.01; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test), with a seemingly stronger avoidance effect when presented with C. coriaceus extracts. The other cuticular extracts had no significant effect on any of the behavioral items measured. Although it cannot be entirely excluded that the differences observed, are partly due to the intrinsic properties of the vehicle employed to build the cuticular extracts, the results suggest that slugs can innately discriminate amongst different potential predators and adjust their behavioral response according to the relevance of the threat conveyed by their predator's chemical cues.

During a study of the distribution and status of Carabus hungaricus Fabricius, 1792 (Coleoptera: Carabidae), with pitfall traps exposed between November 2021 and April 2022, immediately south of Petrovski Krast Peak (1206 m a.s.l.) in the Chepan Planina Mt., at 1188 m a.s.l., the rare and stenotopic steppe species Carabus bessarabicus Fischer von Waldheim, 1823, was found for the first time in Bulgaria and the European Union. In October 2022, elytra of both species were also found by handpicking in the same area. The coexistence of these two specific and rare steppe species has been recorded only in few localities in Ukraine and Russia and in no EU country. This finding is also very interesting given the high conservation status of Carabus bessarabicus, the significant remoteness of its newly established locality (more than 1200 km) from its previously known range, and its strong south-westward drift. The species is used as a bioindicator for the anthropogenically uninfluenced steppe environment, which can also probably be applied in Bulgaria. The establishment of this first record for the EU also implies an increase in the conservation status of the species through its inclusion in the Union-wide conservation documents and ecological networks.

Within the Natura 2000 network, there is a legal imperative to protect endangered species. A lack of knowledge about habitat requirements for these species undermines the ability to make informed decisions about appropriate conservation measures, especially for isolated populations that may have developed habitat preferences specific to their region. Carabus menetriesi is an endangered ground beetle found in Europe and warrants protection under EU law. We collected occupancy data of C. menetriesi using live pitfall traps over two seasons in 2016 and 2018 at a protected nature reserve in southern Bavaria, Germany. Here, we present the results of a patch-occupancy modeling approach to determine habitat preferences for C. menetriesi at this site. Our model shows that increasing Sphagnum cover and habitat diversity led to higher occupancy levels for C. menetriesi at this site, while tree cover was negatively correlated with occupancy, but increased the detectability of the species. Implications for insect conservationMeasures for protecting the C. menetriesi population at the study site were taken in accordance with our results. Areas with high tree cover were thinned at several sites, although the success of this measure has yet to be determined. Our findings about habitat diversity suggest that expansion of low intensity grazing in the area, a measure that was suggested as a result of our survey and is currently in process of implementation, might benefit the species. Whether our results can be transferred to C. menetriesi populations in different habitats remains to be investigated, however, our methodological approach with regard to both the data collection and analysis can be used to assess other populations and provide important information about relevant habitat parameters for that population. This will allow conservation managers to make well-informed decisions about conserving C. menetriesi, or indeed other similar carabid species with isolated populations.

Terrestrial slugs are a prominent agricultural pest worldwide. To mitigate the negative effects of chemical pest control, biological control involves the use of natural enemies to reduce the impact of target pests. Numerous insects are natural predators of slugs. This study evaluated potential of the predatory species, Carabus elysii Thomson (Coleoptera: Carabidae) to biologically control the terrestrial slug, Agriolimax agrestis. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the functional response, searching efficiency, and interference effect of female and male C. elysii adults regarding adult, immature, and juvenile A. agrestis individuals. The results show that both female and male ground beetle adults are functionally capable of preying on different sizes of terrestrial slugs. C. elysii exhibited Holling type II functional responses when preying on A. agrestis. The maximum daily prey consumption was 35.5 juveniles, 25.1 immatures, and 17.1 adults for adult females and 26.9 juveniles, 20.3 immatures, and 11.6 adults for adult males. The searching efficiency of female C. elysii adults regarding A. agrestis was always higher than that of male adults for identical ages and densities of A. agrestis. Moreover, the predation of C. elysii on slugs was affected by predator density. The disturbance coefficient of male C. elysii were the highest on adult A. agrestis. The results of this study suggest that female C. elysii exhibit a high potential for the biological control of A. agrestis.

Aim: To determine how changing the resolution of modelled climate surfaces can affect estimates of the amount of thermally suitable habitat available to species under different levels of warming. Location: Lake Vyrnwy RSPB Reserve, which covers around 9700 hectares of a topographically diverse landscape in Wales. Methods: A recently published microclimate model was used to predict maximum, minimum and mean temperatures at 5 × 5 m resolution for the study site, under current and possible future conditions. These temperature surfaces were then averaged to produce coarser resolution surfaces, up to a maximum of 1 × 1 km resolution. Ground beetles were collected using pitfall traps between May and August 2008. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were fitted to the temperature surfaces to predict the amount of landscape suitable for a northerly-distributed ground beetle, Carabus glabratus, and the most southerly-distributed ground beetle found at the site, Poecilus versicolor, under current and possible future conditions. Results: A wider range of temperatures are expected within our site when temperature is modelled at finer resolutions. Fitting GLMs at different resolutions resulted in the inclusion of different temperature variables in the best models. Coarser resolution models tended to have higher prediction error, and different resolution models predicted that different amounts of the landscape would remain or become suitable in future. There was less agreement between models for C. glabratus than for P. versicolor. Main conclusions: In our example system, different resolution analyses result in different predictions about the ability of populations to survive climatic warming. Higher resolution analyses are not only likely to provide more accurate estimates of expected patterns of change, but also to highlight potential microclimatic refugia for the conservation of species that otherwise might appear to be threatened with regional or global extinction.

The fauna of Carabidae adults in broad-leaved forests of the Republic of Mordovia (central European Russia) was studied. A total of 18210 ground beetle specimens of 104 species (8 subfamilies) were collected. The most numerous species were eight species: Carabus cancellatus, Pterostichus niger, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus, Limodromus assimilis, Calosoma inquisitor, Carabus granulatus, Pterostichus melanarius, Carabus arvensis . The basis of the Carabidae fauna consists of 25 species with high occurrence (50% and higher). Among them, four species are characterized by 100% occurrence: Carabus granulatus, Carabus hortensis, Pterostichus niger, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus .

Model selection is a topic of special relevance in molecular phylogenetics that affects many, if not all, stages of phylogenetic inference. Here we discuss some fundamental concepts and techniques of model selection in the context of phylogenetics. We start by reviewing different aspects of the selection of substitution models in phylogenetics from a theoretical, philosophical and practical point of view, and summarize this comparison in table format. We argue that the most commonly implemented model selection approach, the hierarchical likelihood ratio test, is not the optimal strategy for model selection in phylogenetics, and that approaches like the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian methods offer important advantages. In particular, the latter two methods are able to simultaneously compare multiple nested or nonnested models, assess model selection uncertainty, and allow for the estimation of phylogenies and model parameters using all available models (model-averaged inference or multimodel inference). We also describe how the relative importance of the different parameters included in substitution models can be depicted. To illustrate some of these points, we have applied AIC-based model averaging to 37 mitochondrial DNA sequences from the subgenus Ohomopterus (genus Carabus) ground beetles described by Sota and Vogler (2001).