Ground beetles Temporal range:
| |
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Golden ground beetle eating an earthworm in Northern Germany | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Suborder: | Adephaga |
Superfamily: | Caraboidea |
Family: | Carabidae Latreille, 1802 |
Subfamilies[1] | |
(See text) |
Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles,[2] the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe.[3] As of 2015, it is one of the 10 most species-rich animal families. They belong to the Adephaga. Members of the family are primarily carnivorous, but some members are herbivorous or omnivorous.[4]