The diversity of ground beetles in relation to habitat type was investigated in west-central Illinois from May to Oct. 2005 and 2006 using pitfall traps in six habitats: (1) prairie burned in 2004, (2) prairie burned in 2005, (3) early successional forest, (4) oak-hickory forest burned in 2004, (5) oak-hickory forest burned in 2005 and (6) oak-hickory forest burned in 2006. A total of 2712 ground beetles representing 28 genera and 54 species were collected. A multi-response permutation procedure showed significant differences in ground beetle assemblages among habitat types. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarity supported the findings of MRPP. Indicator species analysis found significant habitat associations for seven species of carabids in 2005 and eight species in 2006. Forest habitats generally had lower species richness than expected based on rarefaction. The effects of fire on prairie carabid assemblages and detrimental effects on individual species appeared to be short-lived. There was little difference in carabid faunas inhabiting oak-hickory stands with different burn histories, but early successional hardwood forest fragments harbored several carabid indicator species.