Bembidion

Bembidion
Bembidion quadrimaculatum
Bembidion levigatum (A) and Bembidion mimbres (B)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Adephaga
Family: Carabidae
Subtribe: Bembidiina
Genus: Bembidion
Latreille, 1802
Diversity
At least 1400 species
Synonyms
  • Sakagutia
  • Zecillenus
Bembidion tetracolum

Bembidion is the largest genus of beetles in the family Carabidae by number of species. All species are small (less than 7.5 mm) and move very fast. Most of them live close to water. The genus has a biantitropical distribution, meaning they are found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but not in the tropics. In warmer regions it is substituted by closely related Tachys and other genera.

Taxonomy

Diversity of genus Bembidion. (A) Bembidion transversale, (B) Bembidion erosum, (C) Bembidion corgenoma, (D and E) Bembidion perspicuum, (F)Bembidion sarpedon.

There have been many attempts to divide it into smaller genera, most notably by René Jeannel in 1941 and by G.G. Perrault in 1981, but none of them have been generally accepted.

This genus is divided into numerus subgenera, some of which are elevated to full genus rank by various authors; as noted above, however, no universally accepted way of splitting the genus exists yet. Bembidion subgenera include:

References and notes

  1. ↑ Hist. Nat. Crust. Ins. 3: 82. Type species: Carabus quadrimaculatus Linnaeus, 1761 (= Bembidion quadrimaculatum).
  2. 1 2 3 4 Carl H. Lindroth. The Carabidae (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Leiden - Copenhagen: Brill - Scandinavian Science Press, 1985. ISBN 90-04-07727-8. P. 129-199.
  3. ↑ Philip Jackson Darlington. Biogeography of the Southern End of the World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965. P. 22, 45.
  4. ↑ "Bembidion Latreille, 1802". Catalogue of Life. Retrieved 2023-03-15.

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