Very many species live in any forest or wood, especially in tropical lands,
but also in any other place this is the best habitat for Beetles. Unluckely,
it's not very easy to find Coleptera, there. Most of them live near the
sunny top of trees, on flowers, leaves and branches; they are mostly Scarabaeidae
(Cetoniinae, Rutelinae, Trichiinae, Glaphyrinae, Melolonthinae, etc.),
Cerambycidae, Buprestidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, etc. Many others
live down, on the ground, in the litter or under barks, roots, etc.; many
of these last species go around during the night, hidden in the day; they
are especially Carabidae (many Carabus of the Northern Hemisphere live
in forests, only), Tenebrionidae, Lucanidae, Passalidae, Geotrupide, Scarabaeidae
(Scarabaeinae), some Cerambycidae, many small families living under bark,
dead leaves and in the soil, etc.
Walking around in a forest is not a good system to find Beetles. The
best is to find some sunny clearings in the wood. A big number of species
can concentrate there. On leaves and flowers of bushes and trees you can
find many Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae,
Elateridae, Dascillidae, Cantharidae, Cleridae, , Melyridae, some Meloidae,
Oedemeridae, etc. Perhaps, these are the best places to collect Coleoptera.
A good net, with a long handle, could be useful. If you find logs or trunks,
lighted by the Sun, this is the best to collect Buprestidae.You can also
find many other species sweeping on herbaceous plants.
If you don't find clearings, if better if you look at the border of
the forest, because in the middle you can just find few specimens, usually
the most common ones, but you can improve your collecting in many ways,
and use several traps:
Search for coming off barks and look under them to find Carabidae, Lucanidae,
Histeridae, Elateridae, Bostrichidae, Anobiidae, Cleridae, Sphindidae,
Cucujdae, Colydiidae, Tenebrionidae, Cerambycidae, Anthribidae, Curculionidae
and many others. Look well at the surface of the bark and of the trunk.
Break the bark to find what is hidden inside. Check holes and galleries
bored by other Insects. You can also beat the bark over a white sheet with
a stick to collect small specimens.
Break dead trunks, logs, roots, etc., using a small hatchet or a knife,
to find Beetles hidden there. In very old and rotten wood you can find
mostly Tenebrionidae and Carabidae, but also some Cerambycidae, Lucanidae,
Passalidae, etc. If you find a lot of small, elliptical brown pellets,
they are excrements of Cetoniidae (or other Scarabaeoidea). Look well among
them. You can find larvae or pupae (these are protected by a brown shell,
like a small egg of bird, covered by their excrements) of many rare species.
When woods are not so old, you can collect some pieces to try to rearing
larvae of many xylophagous species (in humid woods, they are mostly Cerambycidae
and Tenebrionidae, few Buprestidae, Bostrichidae, etc.) and their predators
(Cleridae, Elateridae, etc.).
Move anything you find on the ground: logs, barks, stones, piles of branches
or leaves, etc.. Many species stay hidden there, especially under logs,
where they found the highest moisture of the soil: Carabidae, Tenebrionidae,
Staphylinidae and many other families.
Search in mushrooms to find Myxophaga, Endomichidae, Mycetophagidae, some
Geotrupidae, Staphilinidae, Tenebrionidae, and many other small to very
small species.
Search in and under dung to find many Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae),
some Idrophilidae and Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Search in and under carrions to find Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Geotrupinae, Troginae), Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Pick up rotten leaves and some litter to examine in your house. You can
find many small but very interesting species of a large number of families.
A good hunting system is walking around in the night (the best is to have
a tube lamp and a spot lamp), searching for evening/night-species, like
Carabidae, mostly Carabus, Lucanidae, Tenebrionidae, Cerambycidae, etc.
You can find them walking on the soil or climbing on trees
This habitat is very good to use traps. These are the most useful
ones:
Traps to collect "ground beetles" (mostly Carabidae). Put them in the soil,
possibly near a tree, a cut log or another natural barrier. You can use
bait traps or pitfall traps, but the first kind is the best.
Bait traps to collect "dung beetles" and "carrion beetles"
Traps on trees, to collect Scarabaeidae Cetoniinae, Cerambycidae, Lucanidae,
etc.
Adhesive traps, on trunks, logs, branches, etc., to caught anything is
walking on them.
Underground traps, to collect many small species living in the soil
Light traps, to collect many night-species (mostly Lucanidae, Cerambycidae
and Scarabaeidae,but also many others). (the best is using them in clearings
in the wood).
Malaysian traps, to collect flying Beetles (the best is using it in clearings
in the wood).
When climatic condition are not enough good to leave
forests growing up, trees become rarer and smaller, so we have a new kind
of habitat, with trees, bushes, herbaceous plants, all togheter. Usually
these habitats are in places were rains are distributed in a short time
in the year. It could be Winter, Summer, or distributed among Spring and
Autumn. Natural associations of this kind are typical of Mediterranean
lands in Europe, North Africa and Middle Orient, South Africa, Australia,
California and few places in Chile. However, human activities, especially
logging and cuttle and fires, can change forests in this kind of association.
Many Insects living in forests can survive also
in these habitats, especially species living near the border of forests.
Among them, species preferring dried and sunny places have more opportunities
of life in bushes associations. Different layers are not well identified
like in forest, so most of species can be found on trees and bushes, at
5 mt. high or at 1/2 mt., only.
These are probably the best places to find Beetles
on flowers. They belong to many different families: Scarabaeidae (especially
Cetoniinae, Glaphyrinae, Rutelinae, Valginae, Trichiinae, Sericinae), Cerambycidae
(especially Lepturinae, Clytinae, some Cerambycinae), Buprestidae (mostly
Acmaeoderinae, Buprestinae of Tribe Anthaxiini, many Stigmoderinae, some
Coroebinae, etc.), Mordellidae, many Meloidae (Mylabrinae, Zonitinae, etc.),
Oedemeridae, Malachidae, Meliridae, many Dermestidae (Anthrenus and related
genera), Bruchidae, many Cleridae, Dascillidae, Nitidulidae, Phalacridae
and many others. Many of these insects fly on flowers especially in the
warmest hours of the day, in the good season, among them, Buprestidae are
typical for their preference for sunny and hot days, and usually don't
go where there is shadow, but prefer direct sunshine. Others prefer the
first our of the morning, when there is Sun but it's not too hot (many
Cerambycidae, some Anthaxiini, and many others). Few species prefer the
last hours of afternoon, others are active all the day, and very few in
the night.
Specimens on flowers can be collected simply
using your hands, but is surely more effective a sweeping net and/or an
aspirator.
Also on herbaceous plants and on the ground there
are many species. Among them, very common are many Carabidae, Tenebrionidae,
Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, Scarabaeidae, Cerambycidae, Silphidae, etc..
Places and systems to collect them are quite the same used in clearings
of forests.
To find beetles you can:
Check on leaves and branches of trees and bushes
Sweep bushes and herbaceous plants, especially if
flowering
Check flowers, especially Asteraceae and yellow or
white flowers (red in Australia and few other places) to find Buprestidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, Meloidae, Mordellidae, Cleridae, etc.
Look at trunks and roots to find Cerambycidae, Lucanidae,
Buprestidae, Scarabaeidae Cetoniinae, etc.
Look at the ground to find specimens walking or running
(Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Meloidae, Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Troginae, etc.), Staphilinidae, Cicindelidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae,
Scydmenidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Move anything you find on the ground, especially stones, logs, barks to
find Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Chrysomelidae, Staphilinidae, etc.
Search in and under dung to find many Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae,
some Idrophilidae and Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Search in and under carrions to find Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Geotrupinae, Troginae), Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Walk around in the night (the best is to have a tube lamp and a spot lamp),
searching for evening/night-species, like Carabidae, mostly Carabus, Lucanidae,
Tenebrionidae, Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Collecting systems and traps:
Sweeping net to use on small trees, bushes, herbaceous plants
"Entomological umbrella" to put under trees and bushes
Traps on the ground: pitfall traps and bait traps; bait could be wine,
vinegar, beer (mostly for Carabidae), dead fish (for Silphidae, some Carabidae,
some Scarabaeidae, Staphilinidae, Dermestidae, Histeridae), dung (for Scarabaeidae,
Histeridae, Hydrophilidae)
Traps on trees, to collect Scarabaeidae Cetoniinae, Cerambycidae, Lucanidae,
etc.
Light traps, to collect many night-species (mostly Lucanidae, Cerambycidae
and Scarabaeidae,but also many others).
In these habitats there isn't wood to eat, so these places are without
many species of insects. Many Cerambycidae, Buprestidae, Scarabaeidae,
all Lucanidae, Passalidae, Bostrichidae, Scolytidae, etc., and many other
insects can't live here, because their larvae live in wood. However, many
larvae of Buprestidae and Cerambycidae live in steams of herbaceous plants;
others in roots or free into the soil (a typical genus, among Buprestidae,
is Julodis; one among Cerambycidae is Dorcadion). These are very good places
for all species with larvae living underground eating roots, like all Scarabaeidae
of subfamilies Melolonthinae and other related groups. They are also usually
full of Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae and many other "minor" families. These
are the best habitats for Meloidae (all groups). Among predators, there
are many "ground beetles", especially Carabidae, usually active in the
night, and Cicindelidae (tiger beetles), usually active during the day,
if there are not too many plants. Also flowers can show a large number
of specimens, but with less biodiversity than in forests an bush (there
are not xylophagous species). These habitats are the best to find "dung
beetles", in Spring and Autumn in temperate climate, Summer in cold places.
Many specimens can be found simply walking around and looking on the
ground, on herbs and flowers. If there are lonely bushes or trees, search
on them, because many beetles go there. Search especially under stones
and any other thing on the ground to find many beetles (Carabidae, Staphylinidae,
Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, some Scarabaeidae, especially Melolonthinae,
etc.). This is especially good during the bad season (Winter in temperate
climate), when where is bad weather (too cold, rainy or windy to find insects
out) and during the first hours of the morning. If there are plants with
large leaves on the ground, turn them to find hidden specimens.
To improve your collecting you can:
Use a sweeping net on herbs, especially if there are flowers
Check flowers, especially Asteraceae and yellow or
white flowers (red in Australia and few other places) to find Buprestidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, Meloidae, Mordellidae, Cleridae, etc.
Look at the ground to find specimens walking or running
(Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Meloidae, Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Troginae, etc.), Staphilinidae, Cicindelidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae,
Scydmenidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Move anything you find on the ground, especially stones, to find Carabidae,
Tenebrionidae, Chrysomelidae, Staphilinidae, etc.
Remove herbaceous plants from the ground and search for insects among roots.
(especially good for Sphenoptera, a big genus of Buprestidae living in
Europe, Asia and Africa, but also for small Tenebrionidae and many other
insects).
Search in and under dung to find many Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae,
some Idrophilidae and Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Search in and under carrions to find Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Geotrupinae, Troginae), Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Walk around in the night (the best is to have a tube lamp and a spot lamp),
searching for evening/night-species, like Carabidae, mostly Carabus, Tenebrionidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Collecting systems and traps:
Sweeping net
Traps on the ground: pitfall traps and bait traps; bait could be wine,
vinegar, beer (mostly for Carabidae), dead fish (for Silphidae, some Carabidae,
some Scarabaeidae, Staphilinidae, Dermestidae, Histeridae), dung (for Scarabaeidae,
Histeridae, Hydrophilidae)
Light traps, to collect many night-species (mostly Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae,
Cerambycidae, some Silphidae, some Cicindelidae, some Carabidae, etc.).
Deserts and subdeserts
Many people could think these habitat are poor of life, also insects, but
it's surely not true! These places are full of many interesting species.
with adaptation to their hard way of life. Most of insects living in deserts
are active only during the night, or evening, and stay hidden during the
day to prevent water loss. There are many problem in these habitats: find
water, wind food, avoid highest temperatures or wind, find places to stay
hidden, etc. Many insects are able to do everything wery well.
The best adapted Coleoptera are surely Tenebrionidae. Most of them
are completely black to protect themselves from UV radiation (very strong
in all deserts); someone is white or with light colours (usually they have
black teguments covered with a kind of pulverulence, white, grey, pink,
etc.) to prevent to reach too high temperatures staying under the Sun.
On the contrary of Tenebrionidae living in other habitats, deserts species
have very long legs and run very fast on the ground. Most of them are nocturnal,
but many can be active night and day. They can eat almost anything is unable
to escape and are able to preserve water in their body in vey efficient
ways. Most of desert lands are not totally without plants, but there are
many bushes, small trees and herbaceous plants. They are usually full of
insects, especially Buprestidae and Meloidae. Under stones there is a whole
world of insects, especially near creeks (also dried creeks): Carabidae,
Tenebrionidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, etc. There are many kinds
of deserts: sandy deserts, stone deserts and rock deserts. In the Sahara
desert, there are different names for them: "erg" is the typical sandy
desert, with dunes, "serir" is a desert covered with rounded stones, "hamada"
is a full rock desert. There are also salt deserts, and we can classify
deserts also by temperatures: warm deserts and cold deserts. The first
ones are Sahara, Arabian desert, Kalahari, Deccan, Australian desert, Mexican
and Southern U.S.A. deserts and Atacama desert. The second ones are deserts
of central Asia (from Caspian Sea to Mongolia), Canadian and Northern U.S.A
deserts, Chilean deserts. Very typical are foggy deserts: Namib, West Sahara
(from S.Maroc to Mauritania), some Chilean deserts. Many insects living
in these desets developped very interesting systems to get water coming
from fog.
Collecting in desert is quite simple. Many specie can be found simply
looking on the ground, especially in the evening, when many species, especially
Tenebrionidae ad Carabidae, go out from their holes.
To improve your collecting you can:
Use a sweeping net on herbs, especially if there are flowers
Check flowers, especially Asteraceae and yellow or
white flowers (red in Australia and few other places) to find Buprestidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, Meloidae, Mordellidae, Cleridae, etc.
Look at the ground to find specimens walking or running
(Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Meloidae, Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Troginae, etc.), Staphilinidae, Cicindelidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae,
Scydmenidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Move anything you find on the ground, especially stones, to find Carabidae,
Tenebrionidae, Chrysomelidae, Staphilinidae, etc.
Remove herbaceous plants from the ground and search for insects among roots.
(especially good for Sphenoptera, a big genus of Buprestidae living in
Europe, Asia and Africa, but also for small Tenebrionidae and many other
insects).
Search in and under dung to find many Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae,
some Idrophilidae and Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Search in and under carrions to find Silphidae, Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae,
Geotrupinae, Troginae), Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Walk around in the night (the best is to have a tube lamp and a spot lamp),
searching for evening/night-species, like Carabidae, mostly Carabus, Tenebrionidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Collecting systems and traps:
Sweeping net
Traps on the ground: pitfall traps and bait traps; bait could be wine,
vinegar, beer (mostly for Carabidae), dead fish (for Silphidae, some Carabidae,
some Scarabaeidae, Staphilinidae, Dermestidae, Histeridae), dung (for Scarabaeidae,
Histeridae, Hydrophilidae). Also other baits work quite well in this habitat,
because many beetles are adapted to eat almost everything; one of them
is bread. This is a good places to use barrier traps.
Light traps, to collect many night-species (mostly Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae,
Cerambycidae, some Silphidae, some Cicindelidae, some Carabidae, etc.).
Colour traps work well if put near creeks or other places where there is
some vegetation; the same is true for fruit or beer/wine traps on bushes
or Acacias.
Salt lands
In many arid lands it's possible to find low terrains with high concentration
of salt (mostly NaCl, but also CaSO4, KCl and others). It usually
happens in endorheic regions (where rivers go towards inland and don't
reach the sea). So water can leave only by evaporation, and salt must stay
there. These lands can look like lakes during rainy seasons, but they can
be more dried than a desert in other seasons. We have good examples of
these habitats in North Africa (especially in Tunisie, Algerie and Egypt),
several places in Asia (Middle Orient, Caspian Sea, Aral Lake, Mongolia,
etc.), North America, Australia. But there are smaller salt lands in many
other places (e.g. small salt lakes in Cyprus Islands and other Mediterranean
isles, all connected with sea water, others in Anatolia, ecc.).
These habitat show very poor vegetation, because plants have many problems
with salt water. They must find a way to get more water than salt. Usually
they are able to get a lot of salt water, keeping water and eliminating
salt (it can be stored in some places in the plant, usually leaves). So
these plants have a very high concentration of salt in their tissues, and
just few animal are able to eat them (among big mammalians, just camels).
However, some species of insects, especially Coleoptera and Lepidoptera,
can live eating these salt plants. So, also predators can find food.Among
them, several interesting Cicindelidae and some uncommon Carabidae are
typical of these habitats.
Usually, few species are walking around during the day (they are mostly
Cicindelidae flying and running on the ground and some Chrysomelidae and
Curculionidae on salt vegetation). Most of species go out in the evening
and/or night. Most of collecting systems are the same used in deserts,
but in these places barrier traps are particularly good. Also black light
works quite well in the night.
Seashores and cliffs
Seashores are very interesting places to find beetles. Their Insects' population
is quite similar to sandy deserts and/or salt deserts. So, they are something
like "miniature deserts". There are two sources of food for Insects: plants
growing on dunes and dead sea vegetation and animals along the seashore.On
plants of dunes (mostly herbs, usually Graminaceae) feeds especially Curculionidae
and Chrysomelidae, but we can find also Buprestidae and Cerambycidae (larval
stages feed in steams or in roots). Several Scarabaoidaea have larvae living
in sandy soil, eating roots: Dynastinae (in Mediterranean countries, Phyllognathus
is typical), Pachypodinae (Pachypus is a very interesting genus, with totally
wingless females [without wings and elitrae!]), Rutelinae (many Anomala,
etc.), Sericinae (the genus Triodonta is common in all Mediterranean seashores
with many species), etc. Adults of these species could be found walking
on the ground or staying on steams of herbs, many on flowers.
Many Insects live eating what left by the sea (sea plants, dead fishes,
etc.) They are mostly Tenebrionidae and other related small families. They
can be easy found checking under anything you find near the sea, especially
in the zone where sand is quite humid (but not too much). In these habitats,
we find terrestrial Arthropods (Insects, Chilopoda, Arachnida, etc.), mixed
with Crustacean (mostly Amphypoda and Isopoda). Beetles are represented
by many Tenebrionidae, but also predators, especially Carabidae, Staphylinidae,
Histeridae, etc. During the day, with Sun and high temperatures, these
shores can be full of Cicindelidae, looking for flies and other small Arthropoda
to eat.
On the contrary, cliffs are not very good places to collect Beetles.
Except species living on the vegetation, very few Beetles live among rocks
and in the salt water among them. We can just find few very interesting
species of Cicindelidae and some rare water beetle.
To improve your collecting you can:
Use a sweeping net on herbs, especially if there are flowers
Check flowers, especially Asteraceae and yellow or
white flowers (red in Australia and few other places) to find Buprestidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, Meloidae, Mordellidae, Cleridae, etc.
Look at the ground to find specimens walking or running:
Tenebrionidae, Cicindelidae, Staphilinidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae,
Scydmenidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Move anything you find on the ground, also human manufacts (bottles, boxes,
plastic objects, etc.), to find Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Chrysomelidae,
Staphilinidae, etc.
Remove herbaceous plants from the ground and search for insects among roots.
(especially good for Sphenoptera, a big genus of Buprestidae living in
Europe, Asia and Africa, but also for small Tenebrionidae and many other
insects).
Search in and under dung to find many Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae,
some Idrophilidae and Histeridae, Staphylinidae, etc.
Search in and under carrions of fishes, etc., to find Tenebrionidae, Silphidae,
Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae, Geotrupinae, Troginae), Histeridae, Staphylinidae,
etc.
Walk around in the night (the best is to have a tube lamp and a spot lamp),
searching for evening/night-species, like Carabidae, mostly Carabus, Tenebrionidae,
Cerambycidae, Scarabaeidae, etc.
Collecting systems and traps:
Sweeping net
Sieves of different sizes to find specimens living
in sand
Traps on the ground: pitfall traps and bait traps; bait could be wine,
vinegar, beer (mostly for Carabidae), dead fish (for Silphidae, some Carabidae,
some Scarabaeidae, Staphilinidae, Dermestidae, Histeridae), dung (for Scarabaeidae,
Histeridae, Hydrophilidae). Also other baits work quite well in this habitat,
because many beetles are adapted to eat almost everything; one of them
is bread. This is a good places to use barrier traps.
Colour traps work if put where there is vegetation, especially with bushes.
Light traps, to collect many night-species (mostly Scarabaeidae Melolonthinae,
Cerambycidae, some Silphidae, Carabidae, etc.).
Mountain snow-fields and glaciers
Snow fields and glaciers could seems habitats without Insect's life, but
it's not completely true.
Very few species of Coleoptera find here a good place to live. Among
them we have some interesting species of Carabus. In Europe they are mostly
represented by species in the subgenus Orinocarabus. All these species
live in the mountain, usually over 2000 mt. of altitude, especially near
glaciers (or places where glaciers were in the past). In the cold season,
they are usually inactive (hibernation) and they come out in the good season
(from Spring to the beginning of Autumn). Some of these species are particularly
common under stones near the border of glaciers, because they use to go
walking there to find and eat insects falling on snow and died or unable
to fly away. They have several adaptations to survive in these conditions
(near 0°C) (night and day) without lower too much their metabolism.
These are surely the best beetles we can find in these habitats, but it's
also quite interesting to check on the surface of snow and glacier to find
insects falling there. It is just like a big "pitfall trap" for flying
beetles. This is particularly good in windy days in the first warm days
of Spring and early Summer. Many specimens coming from woods and fields
at lowers altitudes can be found. Checking under stones near snow is very
good to find Carabus (Orinocarabus, Orecarabus, Platycarabus, etc.), other
Carabidae, Tenebrionidae, Byrrhidae, etc.
Lakes, marshes, swamps, Rivers,
streams, etc.
Many Insects live in fresh water, especially the "most primitive" orders.
All Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Tricoptera, Plecoptera and many Coleoptera
and Diptera have larvae living in water. Among Coleoptera, many families
are typical of these habitats: all Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Hygrobiidae,
Haliplidae, Dryopidae, Helmidae, many Hydrophilidae, some Chrysomelidae,
etc. On the contrary of other groups, like Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Diptera,
etc., also adults of these Coleoptera live usually in water but, while
some of their larvae are able to get oxygen directly from water, adults
must get it from air, so they must return to water surface to get it, or
use oxygen they find in small bubbles on plants or in their tissues.
Specimens in these habitats can be found in any season, also if the
best is usually in Spring and Summer. Most of species prefer marshes, swamps
or temporary small lakes, especially if there are not fishes (many of them
eat insects). Usually they can be found underwater, among plants, under
stones or simply swimming around (Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, Hygrobiidae,
Hydrophilidae). Gyrinidae are usually easy to see running fast on the surface
in groups of also many dozens of specimens. However, they are also able
to go underwater, if they need! Among vegetation, under or over water,
there are several species. The most typical are some Chrysomelidae Donaciinae,
with many fine and shining species. Their larvae live underwater in the
same plants.
Different species are typical of running waters. The biggest problem
for these species is to avoid to be carry away by water, so they usually
have strong claws or live under stones. The most typical are Dryopidae
and Helmidae. They can easy be found keeping small plants living in small
creeks.
Most of acquatic species can be easy collected using a net. Move the
net among aquatic vegetation or move stones, etc. on the bottom and then
use the net in small lakes, swamps. etc.Move stones, plants, etc. in rivers
and creeks and put the net after, so running water will drag specimens
in your net. It's better to use a net with very small holes, because there
are many species of small size, especially among Dytiscidae and Haliplidae.
Caves
Caves are not very abundant in species and specimens, because there is
not a big amount of food. But these species are very strange and interesting
for their extreme adaptations to these habitats. Most of them are very
small, with long legs, antennae and palps, while their eyes are very small
or absent, because without light they are completely useless. Their abdomen
is usually very inflated, because they have a very long intestine to assimilate
any food they can find. Many o them are testaceous, because they don't
need dark colour to protect by UV rays and bright colours to send messages
to others are useless without light.
The most typical beetles in these places are Catopidae and several
Carabidae, but there are also Staphylinidae, Histeridae, etc. Most of them
live especially in caves with bats, because they are less poor in food.
Many species living in caves are closely related to those living in the
soil. They are usually collected by traps with cheese or other baits.
