The Romanian Carpathians, with an altitude of over 1000 m., harbour 10 species of the Nebria Genre, of which 3 are undoubtedly endemic: N. (Nebria) femoralis Chaudoir 1843; N. (Alpaeonebria) bissenica Bielz 1887; N. (Alpaeonebria) carpatica Bielz 1850. Some other species: N. (Alpaeonebria) reitteri Rybnisk 1902; N. (Nebria) transylvanica Germar 1824; N. (Boreonebria) heegeri Dejean 1826, and N. (Alpaeonebria) reichei Dejean 1826, occur in the Ukraine or have a wider distribution:  N. (Nebria) femoralis Chaudoir 1848; N. (Eunebria) jockischi hopfneri Dejean 1826; N. (Boronebria) gyllenhali Schonher 1806 et N. (Alpaeonebria) fuscipes Fuss. 1850. This preliminary study examines the morphological features that are likely to ensure the very difficult distinction of these species. The insects studied are originating from the Maramureş Mountains, Rodna Mountains, Bucegi Mountains, and Făgăraş Mountains, collected over several years. The descriptive characters selected are divided between the macroscopic and the stereomicroscopic criteria.  The macroscopic criterion retains mainly the size, the elytral and appendages color, the shape of the pronotum and elytra, the elytra length, the leg color, the number of discus pores from the 3 0 interstries (table 1.). These data provide only a separation per group of species. Additional criteria, obtained by stereomicroscopic observations, are necessary for an accurate identification: shape of the antennal basal article and mainly the chaetotaxy of the first two antennal articles, of the submentum and of the ventrites 4-5-6 (table 2). This type of study is either old (Csiki 1946), either partial (Horvatovich 1972, Hurka 1975), the most comprehensive for the descriptive part being the recent work by Ledoux et al. 2005.  The comparative study allows to identify the relevant criteria for differentiating the species and to establish a dichotomy table. This latter table uses the chaetotaxy, which implies to group the individuals according to the integrity of the bristles.

Nebria Carpathians species, morphological features, differentiating criteria.

Presentation: oral