ABSTRACT
Prologue. We offer the following comments and instructions preceding the details of the treatment of this family. The Beetles of the United States (Arnett 1960), the volume on which the present one is based, was published toward the beginning of an era of intense active investigation of carabid beetles by North American workers. Within that decade, Wallis (1961) published his treatment of Canadian tiger beetles. A monumental treatment of the Carabidae (Cicindelinae excluded) of Canada and Alaska appeared in six parts (Lindroth
1961-1969b). This latter work and the magnetic influence of its talented, friendly, inspirational and cooperative author seemed to set the stage for all of the work by North American carabid specialists who followed, to the present. Most of the publications have been in the form of monographic treatments of tribes or genera, with very limited publication of isolated descriptions. Many of these monographs, referred to in appropriate places in the following taxonomic treatment, addressed broader issues, principally phylogeny and geographical history of taxa. Many of these publications treated larvae as well as adults. Most emphasized morphological features as the basis for taxonomic decisions, but with the passage of time, electrophoretic and molecular features were used. Illustrations have been a prominent feature of the monographs, in the form of line drawings, photographs, and SEM photographs.
