GROUND BEETLE, the name for members of a family of Coleoptera, the Carabidae, comprising 13,00o species and forming the largest and most typical family of Adephaga. In many Carabidae the hind wings are reduced or absent, and the elytra fused together along the suture, the hind legs being adapted for rapid movement. They are world-wide in their dis tribution being represented in the Arctic regions and on almost all of the oceanic islands, and can be traced back in fossil history to Liassic times. See COLEOPTERA.