Environmental factors impact on body size variation in ground beetle Poecilus cupreus L. (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

The paper deals with the morphometric analysis of six linear traits in ground beetle Poecilus cupreus L. There is no data on intra-specific body size variation in this species. Beetles were sampled in four provinces of Russia situated at different latitudes – from 45N to 55N. We studied 20 plots with differing anthropogenic impact (cities, suburbs, rural and natural biоtopes) and vegetation (forests, meadows, agricultural areas). We used linear models to determine environmental factors contribution (sampling site in the area, anthropogenic impact) to body size variations in Poecilus cupreus L. It was shown that in the studied species the variability of different traits differed with latitude: elytra and head size increased towards the high latitudes, but pronotum size – decreased. In cities, suburbs and rural habitats nearly all beetles’ traits size decreased. At that, in some cases the traits variations in males and females were bidirectional.