Specific Features of the Life Cycles of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in Northern Taiga

摘要

Life cycles of widespread ground-beetle species has been studied in the northern taiga. Distinctions were revealed between beetles of the same species from the northern taiga and the belt of mixed forests. In the northern taiga, peaks of activity typical of ground beetles are shifted from spring and autumn to summer. In species with vernal type of reproduction, adaptations to dwelling in the North are expressed in an accelerated of development due to the shortening of the reproduction period and synchronization of development in preimaginal ontoge-netic stages. Species with the initially autumnal type of reproduction pass to the biennial cycle in the northern taiga, with reproduction period shortened and shifted to summer. These adaptations allow ground beetles with wide distribution ranges to exist in the North and to dominate in abundance in forest ecosystems.