Virtual identification of New Zealand Carabidae genera project
Among the Coleoptera, ground-beetles (family Carabidae) are a group of high interest to biodiversity and conservation managers and researchers. Larochelle & Larivière (2001, Fauna of New Zealand 43) catalogued 78 genera, of which 58% (46) were recorded as endemic to New Zealand. In spite of this, over 40% of the fauna remains to be revised taxonomically and, although carabids have recently received renewed interest from ecologists, molecular biologists, and population geneticists, much of the taxonomic information that is available is incomplete and, for the most part, dates back to the period before 1985.
Larochelle & Larivière (2007, Fauna of New Zealand 60) provided for the first time a taxonomic review of New Zealand subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, genera and subgenera, including comparative descriptions, identification keys to subfamilies, tribes, and genera within each tribe; habitus drawings, distributional and ecological information, and summaries of collecting techniques for all genera; the most relevant bibliographic references for all taxa; an updated checklist of species and a summary of all taxonomic changes since the 2001 Catalogue.
Eighty-six (87) genera belonging to twenty-one (21) tribes are recorded here. The overall goal of this project is to contribute to the knowledge of ground-beetle biodiversity by making paper-based carabid information more accessible. More specifically, the aim is to prepare a fully illustrated interactive key for ground-beetle genera identification by non-specialists based on the literature as well as on unpublished information gathered by the first author as a by-product of recent research projects. The Lucid Phoenix interactive key presented here allows the identification of all genera of New Zealand Carabidae, by-passing the usual three-step process of first using a key to subfamilies, then a key to tribes within a subfamily, and a key to genera within one tribe, in order to identify a genus.
The development of this web-based identification guide takes a step-by-step approach so that additional information, images, and functionalities can be added to each subsequent version of the guide. The first version, published in June 2007, provided the text of a Lucid Phoenix interactive key to New Zealand ground-beetle genera, accompanied by an alphabetical checklist of tribes and genera, a glossary of technical terms, and schematic views of carabid morphology to assist users of the key. Key couplets were not illustrated. The second version, published in February 2008 gave a revised identification key to genera, with key couplets illustrated, as well as revisions and updates for all other sections of this identification guide. The current version adds habitus illustrations representing all genera in the key and modifies the checklist, key to genera, and bibliography to accommodate the recent description of the genus Meonochilus by Liebherr & Marris (2009) .
Comments, suggestions or criticisms of this guide, may be sent to the second author:
Marie-Claude Larivière
Landcare Research
Private Bag 92170, Auckland
Supported with funding from the Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai TFBIS* programme (Project 186, July 2006–June 2009) and Landcare Research - Manaaki Whenua FRST*–funded OBI* contract "Depicting the New Zealand Land Biota ."
*FRST = Foundation for Research Science & Technology. OBI = Outcome-based Investment. TFBIS = Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System.