The beetles of the county of Salzburg - a contribution to the survey of European Invertebrates (Coleoptera)

The beetles of the county of Salzburg - a contribution to the survey of European Invertebrates (Coleoptera) Recently the author has published the book ‘Die Käfer des Landes Salzburg – Faunistische Bestandserfassung und tiergeographische Interpretation’ (‘The beetles of the county of Salzburg – faunistical survey and zoogeographical interpretation’). It contains more than 30 000 records, covering a period of more than 100 years. This large amount of information, combined with the co-operation with ZOBODAT (Linz, Austria), made it possible to conduct some statistical and biogeographical analyses. The county of Salzburg covers 7153 km2, less than 1% of the area of central Europe. It was almost completely covered with ice during the last ice age period until 18 000 years ago. Despite this, 3750 beetle species have been found in the area. The main cause for this relatively high number of species is the high degree of heterogenity of the landscape in the county of Salzburg. Besides, the analysis of the distributional ranges of the beetles of Salzburg reveals that most of them occupy a very large range, which indicates a high dispersal capacity. This faunistic study of beetles was published in the German language, because it will predominantly be used by colleagues from German speaking countries. Nevertheless, the book can also be used by entomologists without or with very little knowledge of the German language. The general chapters are richly illustrated and the distribution in Salzburg of 154 beetle-species is figured in grid maps. The recording sites are registered in an index, containing precise data on the locality including the coordinates according to a small scale grid. This comprehensive work of more than 700 pages can be considered as a contribution to the survey of the European invertebrate fauna.