Urban forests and parks are important biodiversity hotspots in densely populated cities, but
little attention has been paid to soil invertebrates in urban green infrastructure. Ground-dwelling
beetles (GDBs) are an environmental bioindicator. Understanding their composition and habitat
preferences could improve urban park design and management in terms of soil ecosystem services.
GDB larvae in Taipei Botanical Garden were collected monthly in 20 pitfall traps and in forest
floor litter samples using Berlese funnels from February 2020 through March 2021 to monitor seasonal
changes and spatial distributions. Environmental factors, including tree diversity, basal area,
forest floor litter biomass, leaf area index, canopy openness, human disturbance, and canopy layers,
were measured for each plot. Over 14 months, 107 GDB larva individuals were collected and
classified into 6 families including the Carabidae, Lampyridae, Staphylinidae, Discolomatidae, Tenebrionidae
and Scarabaeida, where the non-carnivorous Staphylinidae and Discolomatidae were
most dominant. No difference was found between plots covered with grass litter, but the density of
Discolomatidae larvae significantly increased with forest floor litter biomass. The canopy structure
significantly affected the habitat preference of GDB larva. A redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated
that both the Staphylinidae and Discolomatidae larvae preferred open canopies, while the Staphylinidae
seemed to be sensitive to human disturbance and preferred habitats far from pathways and
buildings. Our results suggested that in addition to urban forest structure and management, the
impacts of human activity on soil invertebrates should also be considered in urban park design and
litter management.