Molecular Identification of Ground Beetles on Arable Land

Abstract

Based on the number of individuals and percentage of encounters in the studied areas, it is concluded that ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) stand out in comparison to other beetles, which is proved by the qualitative and quantitative composition of the collected fauna (51 species and 4,420 individuals) in the field of wheat, sugar beet and maize. Starting from the domination of geobiotic insects which spend most of their life in soil and manifest their imaginal activity on the surface of soil, the method of "Barber's traps" was applied. Within this family the dominant and subdominant species during research were Anchomenus dorsalis, Poecilus cupreus, Harpalus rufipes, Calosoma auropunctatum, Harpalu distinguendus and many others. 24 carabids species were determined using the COI mtDNA, i.e. 8 species which don't have reference sequence in the gene bank were determined and this contributes to the global bar-code database. The representatives of ground beetle family are of certain economic significance as well. They can appear as pests; on the other hand, they are known to be very beneficial i.e. as regulators of number of harmful insects as reported in numerous research papers of various authors.