The fauna of Carabid beetles in agricultural fields of Jiroft

Beetles of Carabidae or ground beetles are one of the most well-known groups of Coleoptera. Most of them are considerable predators of common agriculture pests. Because of the vast and diverse agriculture areas in Jiroft, we studied the fauna of Carabidae in different agriculture crop lands of Jiroft. Different methods such as hand picking, pit fall traps and light traps were used in this study, during 2012-2013. In total, 30 species and subspecies belonging to 21 genera and 10 subfamilies of carabid beetles were collected and identified. Most of the species were collected by pit fall traps. One species of the genus Acinopus was new for science, but needs further examinations. All species, except 7 were new to the fauna of Kerman province. Sampling in two climatically different, but geographically close (75kms) regions showed that species diversity differed between two regions. The species Pheropsophus (Stenaptinus) arabicus had the highest density among collected species. Regarding the role of habitat management in protecting natural enemies such as ground beetles, it is suggested that providing places as refugies for such insects in field boundaries and preventing application of pesticides can protect such insects and enhance their species diversity.