Distribution, Life Forms and Ecological Peculiarities of Darkling Beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) of the Eastern Kara Kum

Abstract

This work is based on the comparative analysis of the literature data on the fauna, distribution, and ecology of darkling beetles from Eastern Kara Kum, as well as on the results of year-round study of the author in 1972–1994 in the territory of the Repetek Biosphere Reserve. The modern fauna of the darkling beetles of the Eastern Kara Kum includes 92 species of 55 genera. Among them, Turanian endemics account for about 75% of the species, including 53% of the South Turanian, 11% of the Kara Kum, and 17% of the Eastern Kara Kum species; and 38, 24, 13 and 5% of endemic genera, respectively. Darkling beetles of the Eastern Kara Kum belong to more than 25 life forms. Psammophiles constitute about 51%, including psammophiles of the first order 19, the second order 15, and the third order 17% of the species. Among psammophiles of the first, second, and third orders endemics of the Eastern Kara Kum are 35, 29 and 25% species, respectively; Kara Kum—12, 14 and 6%, South Turanian—24, 50 and 44%, and Turan as a whole 88–100% species. The total number of psammophilic genera of darkling beetles in the Eastern Kara Kum is 32 (58%); 19 (59%) of them are endemics of the Turan sand deserts. The formation of the fauna of darkling beetles of the Eastern Kara Kum includes two main stages: from the beginning of the Pliocene (5.3 million years ago) to the end of the Middle Pleistocene (126 thousand years ago), and from the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene.