BSc Anne Eckardt

Carabid beetles are useful for the control of pests and weeds because they can eat large numbers of insect prey (carnivorous species) or weed seeds (granivorous species). Winter is usually a bottleneck in the life cycle of carabids. Some species of beetles overwinter on the field, which is void of vegetation. Here, they have little possibility to hide from unfavourable weather conditions or tillage. Other species of beetles leave the field in autumn and overwinter in the field edge. Their ability to overwinter depends on the amount and quality of the field edge vegetation and the distance to the field edge. It is unclear which of the two strategies has better survival chances.

The purpose of this project could be to obtain preliminary data on 1) best methodology to retrieve carabids,  2) which species overwinter in the field edge and which in the field, 3) numbers of each category.

For this purpose, large soil samples were taken in the field as soon as beetles started hibernating (second half of November, early December). Samples were gathered inside the field, in the field edge and forest edge. Beetles were retrieved using hand-sorting and identified to family and/or species.

Supervisor; Paula R. Westerman

Project duration; November 2012 – April 2013