The Carabid and Staphilinid fauna of raised bogs. A comparison of Northwest Germany and the Baltic region

Raised atlantic peat bogs in the lowlands of Northwest Germany have been destroyed or heavily damaged by cultivation, drainage or peat mining. Thus, today, there is no bog site left with an intact water regime, and undisturbed plant and animal assemblages. Therefore, we intended to study to what extent the recent fauna of German western atlantic plateau bogs still resembles those of the untouched eastern atlantic bogs, and how far the species composition of Baltic bogs represents the former situation in our region. This paper includes the data of Carabidae and Staphylinidae from a one season's pitfall trapping on Zehlau Bog (Kaliningrad region of Russia), Tirel and Teici (Latvia), and Endla (Estonia). The bog plateau is characterized as extreme habitat for Carabid beetles, but not for spiders. Staphylinid beetles display an intermediate pattern: a moderate number of species was found which include some bog specific species but their numbers was low. We found only few hints for regional differences in the composition of the beetle fauna. All of the more specific species occur in North German and in the Baltic bogs as well.