Amara Bonelli, 1810

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 563

Genus Amara Bonelli, 1810

Amara Bonelli, 1810: Tabula Synoptica. Type species: Carabus vulgaris Linnaeus sensu Panzer, 1797 (= Amara lunicollis Schiødte, 1837) designated by Westwood (1838: 4). Etymology. Probably from the Greek amara (trench, by extension furrow, stria), alluding to the presence of laterobasal impressions on the pronotum (" thorax latus, basi transverse impressus, utrinq. stria sesquialtera angulis rectis ") of the adult rather than from the Greek prefix a - (privative) and mairo (to shine, by extension to be clear) alluding to the fact that the adults are dark colored as advocated by Zimmermann (1832: 30) or a - (with) and mairo (to shine) as advocated by Jacquelin du Val (1855: 31) [feminine].

Diversity.

About 595 species (Hieke 2007) in the Nearctic (105 species, including ten adventive species), Neotropical (13 species in Middle America, only two of them endemic), Oriental (five species), Palaearctic (about 505 species, 16 of them Holarctic), and Afrotropical (about 12 species, nine of them endemic) Regions. These species are arrayed in 47 subgenera.

Note.

Almost all new state and province records listed here are based on specimens determined by Fritz Hieke.