Harpalinae
| Harpalinae | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Undetermined Harpalinae species | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Adephaga |
| Family: | Carabidae |
| Subfamily: |
Harpalinae Bonelli, 1810 |
| Supertribes | |
Harpalinae is a huge subfamily of ground beetles that contains 20,000 species. A rarely used common name for the subfamily is the harp beetles. The Harpalinae contain the most apomorphic ground beetles, displaying a wide range of forms and behaviors. Some are, rare among ground beetles, omnivores or even herbivores.
Many closely related subfamilies have been treated as subordinate taxa of the Harpalinae by various authors. Among these are the Dryptinae, Lebiinae (including Cyclosominae, Mormolycinae, Odacanthinae, Perigoninae), Licininae (including Chlaeniinae, Oodinae), Orthogoniinae, Panagaeinae, Platyninae, Pseudomorphinae, Pterostichinae (including Zabrinae). Here, they are considered independent families within the harpaline (sensu lato) assemblage, and this is also tentatively assumed for the enigmatic monotypic genus Ginema.
At least 4 large and several smaller supertribes can be distinguished. The former "Pterostichitae" on the other hand seem to be, as presently delimited, a paraphyletic assemblage, but probably also contains a number of tribes closer to each other than to other Harpalinae. The clade around the type genus Pterostichus is thus recognized as subfamily Pterostichinae here.
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Wikipedia