A preliminary checklist of saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera) in the Hyrcanian forests of Iran, with distributional data

Saproxylic beetles play a vital role in conservation as indicators of the status unmanaged forests. In light concern regarding adverse impact anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity, an essential step forest conserva-tion strategy is identification saproxylic beetles. The Hyrcanian forests are unique remnant natural broadleaf temperate forests, with evolutionary history that can be traced to Tertiary and high diversity tree species. Here we present first checklist including 398 species beetles, belonging 207 genera 46 families, identified by us. Based our results literature data, at least 670 occur bias towards some families supports view detection additional expected, particularly from greater