Abstract: As a large group of arthropods, beetles have different lifestyles and play important roles in ecosystem functioning. Deciphering community assembly processes of beetles is one main research field in community ecology, which aims at elucidating the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of beetle diversity in various environments. Current studies on beetle community assembly are mainly based on functional traits, or approaches integrating phylogenetic structure and functional traits of species. These methods help identify the main driving factors underlying community assembly, including biological interactions, environmental variables, and evolutionary history of beetle species. Here, we reviewed research advances on community assembly of beetles. We identified the main research fields, target taxa, and the common methods. With the existing theories and hypotheses, we summarized the factors affecting assembly processes of beetles, thereby to help improve our understanding of beetle community ecology and move forward ecological research on animal community assembly.

Key words: community ecology, functional trait, phylogeny, niche theory, neutral theory.