Taxonomic literature for Carabids of Costa Rica

H. W. Bates (1883) compiled what was known at the time on Costa Rican carabids. In that treatment, he described 16 new species and chronicled others that were described previously by 10 different authors, including himself. Subsequent to Bates' synopsis of Middle America, few carabid specialists spent time on the Costa Rican fauna, until the 1970's when Reichardt began a series of small to medium sized monographic treatments of Neotropical genera. These have proven very useful in identifying species, however Reichardt's untimely death in 1976 ended his contributions. By then, however, G.E. Ball and his students, Erwin, Madge, Whitehead, Spheley in another series of monographic treatments carried on studies of Neotropical groups.

Erwin, T. 2002. The Beetle Family Carabidae of Costa Rica: Twenty-nine new species of Agra Fabricius 1801 (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Lebiini, Agrina). Zootaxa 119: 1-68. (PDF File)