干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Beetles of the suborder Adephaga and the series Staphyliniformia (suborder Polyphaga), are disproportionately well represented in the Arctic. The High Arctic, i.e. the territory encompassing both the subzone of arctic tundra and the zone of polar deserts, is populated by at least 71 coleopteran species belonging to ten families. The set of beetle families in the High Arctic is stable enough in different sectors of the Arctic as well as in the subarctic highlands. The most common beetle families are: Staphylinidae, Carabidae, Dytiscidae, Chrysomelidae, and Curculionidae. Rove beetles clearly demonstrate superiority over ground beetles in the High Arctic. The beetle fauna of the polar deserts consists of relatively small, wingless, polytopic and polyphagous species with vast distributions (Micralymma brevilingue, Staphylinidae; Chrysolina subsulcata, Ch. septentrionalis, Chrysomelidae; Dienerella filum, D. elegans, Latridiidae); all the species recorded from polar deserts prefer intrazonal, often zoogenic, habitats where the snowless season is longer than in the surrounding habitats. The coleopteran assemblages of Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic are greatly impoverished probably due to the relatively young ages of those territories. Among the High Arctic beetle faunas, two polar types are recognizable, i.e. migratory and continual. The relatively young migratory faunas have mainly developed on islands after the last glaciation and contain large portions of macropterous species; such typical wingless arctic species as those in the genera Pterostichus and Cbrysolina are absent. The continual faunas comprise mainly wingless, brachypterous or dimorphic species. Apparently, M. brevilingue is to be considered as the most cold-tolerant beetle species in the Northern Hemisphere.