A Historical Review of Research on Aleocharinae of the Arctic and Subarctic Ecoregions of North America and an Overview of the Study Region

The study region, the Nearctic Arctic and Subarctic, is delimited to include the ecoregions 1–4 and 6.1 as defined by CEC (Terrestrial ecoregions – Level II ecoregions, http://www.cec.org/north-american-environmental-atlas/terrestrial-ecoregions-level-ii/, 2018). This encompasses the tundra, taiga forests and the lowlands of Alaska (United States) and all Canadian provinces except the Maritimes. Entire Labrador, including its better-collected and milder, coastal part (ecoregion 5.1) was included in the study region for simplicity, though records from ecoregion 5.1 were not included in the historical review or faunal analysis of Chap. 6. Unlike other regions of North America, taxonomic research on arctic and subarctic aleocharines largely began relatively recently. Thus far (including the present study) 1404 geographically distinct species-level collection records have been published, the majority of which were contributed in four significant events.