Investigationof the species diversity of Coleoptera in Alborz Province (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

The aim of this study was to investigate species diversity of the ground beetles, Carabidae Latreille, 1802 family in Alborz Province in three regions, including Karaj, Eshtehard and Taleghan. For this purpose, during 2016 and 2017, a total of 27 stations were sampled using pitfall traps. The Shannon-Wiener index was calculated as an index of species diversity. According to the results, a total of 329 ground beetles, including 36 species belonging to 20 genera and 9 subfamilies were identified in the studied areas, which included 15 new records for Alborz Province. The most dominant species in Karaj were Harpalus (Pseudoophonus) griseus (Panzer, 1796), Harpalus (Pseudoophonus) rufipes (Degeer, 1774), Harpalus (Harpalus) distinguendus distinguendus (Duftschmid, 1812) and Calathus (Neocalathus) cinctus (Motschulsky, 1850). Zabrus (Zabrus) morio morio (Ménétriés, 1832) and Grammognatha euphratica (Dejean, 1822) in Eshtehard and Ditomus calydonius oriens (Dvořák, 1993), Calathus (Calathus) syriacus (Chaudoir, 1863) and Harpalus (Harpalus) oblitus oblitus (Dejean, 1829) in Taleghan were dominant. The results of the nonparametric biodiversity indices (Shannon-Wiener) showed that Karaj had the highest species diversity.