help to identify carabidae

[shytonak]

hi.i'm MSc. student of Agricultural Entomology ( University of Tehran ).
i wanna study in carabid beetles and i need books that help me to identify carabid beetles like identification key.

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi,

I don't know if I really can help with books. I guess my british friends around here might have the better commendations. Most of my books are in German (who wonders?), but one is written in German and English which might be good of use for you, even it is about beetles in Europe; so there is a lot of species' in it, that does not occure in Iran, or better: I guess most of them do not occur in Iran. But maybe it helps identifying the genus. Have a look here:

Beetle literature and book tips - kerbtier.de

Scroll down to the eighth book, "Tigerbeetles, Groundbeetles", illustrated key to the Cicindelidae and Carabidae of Europe.

A few years ago I made one Experience when I helped a Student in Germany who did his diploma in Carabidae: you will be not able to determine them all correctly. If you really do it on your own, your margin of error will be very high, especially in those genus' which are difficult because of many similar species'. So my commendation is to ask someone who is doing the carabids your working on.

Regards
Klaas

[shytonak]

thanks

[poschiavanus]

Klaas, what a very useful link! I'd been wondering about buying the B-W Weevil book, but didn't know if it had keys or not! Now I do.

Some of the older literature available on-line may still be useful: I'm thinking in particular of Reitter's Fauna Germanica - Die Käfer des deutschen Reiches which is described with links to internet sources on Klaus' page.

I suspect the British literature is too restricted: for most purposes the British fauna can be treated as a subset of that of Central Europe. The exceptions are unlikely to appear in Iran (insects of atlantic or boreal habitats).

Keys which provide determination to sub-family, tribe and genus (so-called natural keys) as well as species are most likely to be useful than those aimed solely at determination of the species. On both these counts the Naturalists Handbook on Ground Beetles is unlikely to be that useful: a shame as it is inexpensive and practical in the field.

[Paul mabbott]

The best and most up-to-date key for British carabids is The Carabidae (ground beetles) of Britain and Ireland by Martin Luff, published by RES. Any serious student of ground beetles must get this!

However, as with all comprehensive keys, you can take a heck of a time wending your way through it. You can save a lot of time if you can get your hands on an old copy of Common ground beetles by Trevor Forsythe (Naturalists Handbooks #8). As its name implies it only keys the more common carabids although it does note the 'blanks' for the rarest species. It's good to get an overall feel for the family and you'll quickly learn to recognise the most common species without keying - giving you more spare time to worry over the 'difficult' ones! Not easy to get hold of, it was rehashed as Ground Beetles although there were a few omissions and the nomenclature was not up-dated.

Many museums and universities have insect collections, usually with a good selection of carabids - a good start is to look through these to give yourself an idea of what the genera look like and as a reference for difficult species.

Good luck.

[JRsbugs]

There's 1 in stock on Amazon of "Common ground beetles by Trevor Forsythe (Naturalists Handbooks #8)"

Common Ground Beetles (Naturalists' handbooks): Amazon.co.uk: Trevor G. Forsythe: Books

Better still, I found new hardback for £7.60, I had to buy one at that price! Postage in the UK is £2.79.

Waterstones marketplace: Common Ground Beetles (Naturalists' Handbook Series) - Trevor G. Forsythe

Wierd, I went backwards and that one wasn't showing any more but going to the link 'Ground Beetles' on the right found it again.

There's a good list of other books too..

Waterstones marketplace: Ground beetles

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Posch,

I wonder if you can speak and understand German. If not, the B-W Weevil book will be no help for you. It is a great book and there is a lot of information and a key to the weevils of Baden-Württemberg (a key for each genus, but no key that is bringing you to the genus you need, so you do need some basic knowledge), but it is written in German. So you need to speak German.

Fauna Germanica of Edmund REITTER still is a good book and often is better in its keys, than the new books. The only handicap is, that a lot of beetles known from Germany today, have not been known in the beginning of the 20th century. One of the hardest examples for this is the genus Glischrochilus (family Nitidulidae). You will only find one species in the REITTER, but there are four species known from Germany (one introduced from the U.S.A., two have not been identified in REITTER's time), and all four are more or less common. So it can be a help, but it can also bring you into trouble.

On the other side the prices are real good for these books: 80 Euro each volumne.

Regards
Klaas

[poschiavanus]

Hi Klaas,

I have a basic spoken, and better written, understanding of German, but have been using quite a few german-language field guides and natural history books for a number of years (Flechten & Saugetiere in the Ulmer B-W series), Klausnitzer's Exkursionsfauna (EFD), 3rd edition of Kosmos Kaeferfuhrer, Lorenz & Kraus (Pflanzenwespelarvae), Hering Blattminieren, and several volumes of Fauna Helvetica. If I could lay my hands on Buhr's Pflanzengallen I'd use that too!

The language of a field guide tends to be very predictable so it is often easy to guess what an unknown word means, but once the basic vocabulary has been assimilated it becomes second nature (for instance I've never used an English-language key for sawfly larvae). Indeed german-language books tend to use fewer latinate terms for insect anatomy (e.g. Hinterleib not gaster, Fühler not antenna), which I find easier to remember. Besides it is always possible to use www.leo.org! I would add that it is important to have a basic understanding otherwise one tends to miss small words which make a big difference to the meaning of a sentence.

There is no British equivalent to EFD: a comprehensive practical field guide to British Insects. I've found it invaluable as it contains completely different information to picture-based field guides. When I reach the point where I want or need more detail then I will start looking for a guide specific for that taxonomic group. (Although I always like to consider numbers of species I will identify / GBP or EUR).

The problem you describe with Reitter is exactly the same as with Fowler (and even Joy): the only complete descriptions of the British Beetle fauna (inevitably as it was known at the time, 1880s and 1932). For instance, this week I've been interested in the leaf-mining Isochnus species which are poorly recorded and not well understood in Britain (particularly whether I. sequensi has supplanted I. foliorum in recent years). As far as I know a recent key to the British species has not yet been written, hence my interest in this book.