摘要：

Efforts to gain universal patterns of grouping species richness along environmental gradients, like latitude and elevation are still present. Rapoport's rule assumes positive relationship between geographical range sizes of species with increase of latitude, claiming that latitudinal range sizes of species increase towards higher latitudes. Here, we examined the response of carabid beetles to 1400 meters elevational gradient of Mt. Uka and tested whether elevational ranges of beetles respond to this rule, meaning that species at higher elevations should have greater elevational ranges. This pattern has been tested for butterflies, ants and tephritid flies. In addition, we have analyzed carabids body size variations at both intraspecific and interspecific levels with increasing elevation to check for Bergmann's rule. Present study was conducted during 2008 year in Uka Nature Park, which is situated in the N-NE part of Istrian peninsula. Eleven plots were selected along elevational gradient. We calculated elevational range of each species that occurred at two or more plots subtracting the lowest altitude at which species was collected from the highest elevation and mid-point as a mean of the highest and lowest elevation. For two species, Abax parallelepipedus and Carabus caelatus present along whole gradient, body length was measured and the body size variations along elevation were analysed. Rapoport's rule was not supported for elevation by carabids, at least not as a linear function of elevational range size and a mid-point of elevation range. Instead, quadratic function has fitted data much better. Linear function has explained 10.8% of variation in collected data and quadratic function 63.3%. Species collected on lower and higher altitudes had smaller elevation range size from species collected on mid-elevation plots. Results show decrease in body size with increase of elevation which is not in compliance with the Bergmann's rule.

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