Beetle Family Assemblages in the White and Green Mountains

The order Coleoptera is the largest of the animal kingdom, comprising about 40% of insect species and 20% of all animals. Coleoptera are an extremely diverse group with 129 families in North America. Beetles are important in forest food webs as they represent a variety of feeding groups and are important food sources for forest floor predators, e.g., salamanders and insectivorous mammals. Understanding the structure of beetle assemblages across the landscape in relation to environmental factors will aid in predictions of how these important groups may respond to environmental change. The objective of this study was then to describe the community structure of beetle families in the White and Green Mountains and identify potentially important environmental variables associated with different beetle groups.