Introduction

Prepared for INBio, February 2002, by: Wendy Moore, Terry L. Erwin, and David H. Kavanaugh.

The family Carabidae, commonly known as "Ground Beetles," is one of the ten largest beetle families and the largest family in the coleopteran suborder Adephaga. This family was erected by Latreille in 1802 at which time it contained 29 genera. Today, the Carabidae contains an estimated 33,000 described species, in approximately 100 tribes and 1,860 genera (Lorenz 1998). Modern classifications of the Carabidae include groups that were previously ranked as families, such as Cicindelidae, Omophronidae, Paussidae, and Rhysodidae.