The Carabid Beetle Fauna of the Gaoligong Mountains, Western Yunnan Province, China

As part of the Academy's multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project to inventory the biodiversity of the Gaoligong Mountains of Yunnan, China, I've been involved over the past decade with an inventory of the carabid beetles of that region in collaboration with Dr. Hong-Bin Liang of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and several other specialists in Europe. I participated in eleven expeditions to the region during the period 1998-2007. To date, more than 40,000 specimens, representing over 530 different carabid beetle species, have been collected, prepared, and identified. At least 80% of these species are new to science. Dr. Liang and I currently are preparing a series of treatments, each covering particular groups (genera or tribes) of these carabid species, describing and naming them, and providing keys for their identification.