Ground beetle fauna (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Abstract

Protected areas are organised in different climatic zones, which usually include typical ecosystems characteristic of certain climatic zones. In most cases, protected areas are biodiversity hotspots. These areas are benchmarks in terms of nature conservation and to determine their biological diversity is becoming an important task. It is important to investigate the carabid family of protected areas within the framework of understanding the overall biological diversity of these systems. In addition, ground beetles, as one of the largest groups of ground-based inhabitants, are indicators of the state of ecosystems and serve as markers of their well-being. We present 2,969 new occurrence records comprising 226 species of Carabidae, belonging to eight subfamilies, from the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (central Russia). Ten species are listed for the first time for the Mordovia State Nature Reserve fauna after previous research: Cicindela maritima, Bembidion striatum, Dyschirius angustatus, Dyschirius arenosus, Notiophilus aestuans, Bembidion argenteolum, Bembidion velox, Bradycellus caucasicus, Cymindis angularis and Syntomus truncatellus, five of which were first recorded for the Republic of Mordovia (Egorov et al. 2020). Previously, this information was not published anywhere and we wanted to make it available to everyone by embedding it in the global database on biodiversity (GBIF).

Dataset: Biodiversity of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of the Republic of Mordovia (Russia)

“…The Republic of Mordovia, occupying an intermediate position between the western and eastern regions of European Russia, is of great interest in faunal studies. Datasets were published earlier on the beetles of the largest protected natural areas, such as the Mordovia State Nature Reserve and National Park "Smolny" [37,38]. However, the diversity of the carabid fauna in this region is far from being limited to them.…”

“…The dataset presented data on 251 species of Carabidae from 12 subfamilies studied during our research (Table 2). In addition, Table 2 includes another 29 species of Carabidae (Table 2), which have been reported in other publications [29,37,[40][41][42][43]. [40][41][42][44][45][46][47][48][49]].…”

Biodiversity of Coleoptera (Insecta) in the Middle and Lower Volga Regions (Russia)

“…With its vast territory and high diversity of natural habitats, Russia faces enormous challenges in its efforts to conserve its entomofauna [20]. The most obvious problem is the lack of basic information on the status and abundance trends of all insect species [20,21], except for a few well-studied groups [22,23]. There is thus an ongoing need to document and understand changes in insect abundance and distribution data [24,25].…”

Dataset: Fauna of Adult Ground Beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of the National Park “Smolny” (Russia)

“…For comparison, the Carabidae diversity of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve, the most closely located to the National Park "Smolny", accounts for 241 species [42,43]. At the same time, the largest number of species was identified as a result of continuous long-term research programs in 2008-2020.…”

“…At the same time, the largest number of species was identified as a result of continuous long-term research programs in 2008-2020. However, it is worth it to note that the mentioned Mordovia State Nature Reserve is a unique forest area with a considerable variety For comparison, the Carabidae diversity of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve, the most closely located to the National Park "Smolny", accounts for 241 species [42,43]. At the same time, the largest number of species was identified as a result of continuous longterm research programs in 2008-2020.…”