92

GROUND BEETLES, DIVING

BEETLES, AND RELATIVES

ADEPHAGA

ADEPHAGA

suborder

Adephaga

known species

46,000

distribution

Worldwide except Antarctica. Some species

live in the Arctic Circle

habitat

All terrestrial habitats

size

1.5–100 mm

diet

Predators, feeding on living invertebrates

and sometimes even vertebrates. A few have

become seed feeders or are known to graze

on algae and detritus

notes

The name of the suborder has its roots in

ancient Greek and means “gluttonous,”

for the extreme predatory habits of some

members. Carabidae tearing apart a worm,

snail, or even a small reptile, or Dytiscidae

eating fish, newts, or water snails, is a

T

he Adephaga is dominated by the very large

family Carabidae, which has around 40,000

species worldwide. The other families are as

follows, with numbers of known species: Gyrinidae

(1,000), Trachypachidae (6), Rhysodidae (350),

Haliplidae (220), Meruidae (1), Noteridae (250),

Amphizoidae (5), Aspidytidae (2), Hygrobiidae (5),

and Dytiscidae (4,000). Of these, Gyrinidae,

Haliplidae, and Dytiscidae have been given their

own sections below. Eight of the eleven families are

mainly aquatic.

The family Meruidae was discovered in 2005,

from waterfalls in Venezuela, and its name is based

on an indigenous word for a waterfall. The tiny

beetles cling to wet rocks, feeding on algae. Both

members of the also recently described Aspidytidae

show the same behavior. One species of aspidytid

occurs in China, the other in Africa, a strangely