Research on carabid beetles has always formed an important part within
Czech entomology, both at professional and amateur level, due to natural beauty
and attractiveness of carabid beetles to collectors and nature admirers. Czech
carabidology left notable traces in the science of the world Carabidae. Several
names of important Czech carabid researchers from the past can be mentioned in
this occasion.
Edmund Reitter (1845-1920) published 5 volumes book УFauna GermanicaФ
(1908-1916), which provided a list of central European beetles, including
carabid beetles, and also published several identification keys to beetles.
František Sokolář (1851-1913) studied mainly intraspecific variability within
the genus Carabus, and described many forms and varieties in several
Carabus species. František Štěrba (1865-1951) published the first
volume of identification keys to Czechoslovak Carabidae - Carabini (1945).
Arnošt Jedlička (1888-1968) described more than 1000 species of carabid beetles
from Asia, many of them still are valid taxa, e.g. of the genera
Bembidion, Clivina, Chlaenius or Amara.
Karel Kult (1918-1998) published the first identification key to the whole
family Carabidae of Czechoslovakia (1947), which was frequently used until
recently. He described many species of Carabidae, also from central Europe.
Miloš Fassati (1921-1997) was the re-known expert on the genera of
Amara and Bembidion worldwide, and described many taxa of
these genera. Karel Hůrka (1931-2004) was a world leading expert in morphology
and taxonomy of carabid larvae, and published modern identification key to Czech
and Slovak Carabidae (1996).
From this point, it is surprising that XVIth ECM meeting will be
the first one hosted in the Czech Republic.
XVIth European
Carabidologists Meeting is therefore an excellent occasion for celebrating this
long tradition of Czech carabidology research.
