title: Inventory of the carabid beetle fauna of the Gaoligong Mountains, western Yunnan Province, China: species of the tribe Zabrini (Coleoptera, Carabidae).
abstract: A ten-year multidisciplinary, multi-national and multi-institutional biodiversity inventory project in the Gaoligong Shan region of western Yunnan Province, China generated more than 35,000 specimens of the beetle (Coleoptera) family Carabidae. In this report, first of a planned series, we focus on diversity in tribe Zabrini. Our study of just over 1300 specimens of zabrine carabids from the project, all in genus Amara Bonelli, found a total of 13 species, all previously described, to occur in the study area, with none of them strictly endemic. We present a key for identification of adults of these species, as well as nomenclatural data, diagnoses, illustrations of dorsal habitus and male genitalia, and information about geographical, altitudinal and habitat distributions within the study area and overall geographical distribution for each species. Distributions of the species within the study area are compared, and broader geographical range patterns are characterized. We also discuss a possible role of the Gaoligong Shan region as one source area for the present-day fauna of the Himalaya and southern edge of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118, U.S.A.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kavanaugh
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Fritz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hieke
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 65022 Yunnan, China.
authors.forename: Dazhi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dong
keywords: Amara; Carabidae; China; Coleoptera; Gaoligong Shan; Himalaya; Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau; Yunnan; Zabrini; biodiversity hotspot; distribution