EN
Based on the recent international discussions on environmental risk assessment (ERA) for genetically modified (GM) plants, the carabids’ community of maize fields were choosen for establishing and developing a methodology to select a proper bio-indicators. The GM maize varieties expressing toxin Cry 1 and Cry 3 may differently affect biology of carnivorous and phytophagous carabids and the flow of the toxin between trophic levels. Two criteria were used to select carabid species for the future standard laboratory tests: (a) prevalence in the communities of two experimental maize fields in central and south-eastern Poland as compared to Czech and (b) their food preference.