【Objectice】To investigate dynamic characteristics of the soil macrofauna community in farmlands different in corn stalk returning rate, a field survey was carried out.【Method】Soil fauna were captured by hand-sorting during the maize growth period from June to September 2016.【Result】A total of 2 681 large soil fauna were captured, belonging to 41 groups. Variance analysis shows that Treatment SR4 (13 500 kg•hm^-2 in corn stalk returning rate) increased the number of individuals of soil macrofauna significantly (P<0.05), while Treatment SR3(12 000 kg•hm^-2 in corn stalk returning rate) increased the number of macrofauna groups significantly (P<0.05). With growth of the corn in the farmland diversity index and richness index of the macrofauna varied, displaying a trend of rising first and then declining, and evenness index a downward trend, while dominance index did reversely, following a trend just opposite to that of the diversity index, that is, declining first and then rising. With growth of the corn, soil macrofuana in the 0~10 cm soil layer tended to migrate downwards to the 10~20 cm soil layer. Analysis of functional groups shows that the group of predacous macrofauna increased first and then decreased in number of individuals with growth of the corn, while. The groups of phytophagous and saprophagous fauna exhibited a trend rising with growth of the corn and in number of individuals with rising corn stalk returning rate too. However, the number of individuals of omnivorous macrofauna did not change significantly with growth of the corn by a certain degree. RDA analysis shows that the groups of soil macrofauna that were affected quite strongly by farmland soil environmental factors were mainly the dominant groups in the research area. The number of macrofauna individuals was closely related to the contents of soil organic matter and soil moisture. 【Conclusion】The dominant groups are affected by soil environmental factors. Return of corn stalk alters microenvironment of the surface soil, which in turn affects composition, distribution characteristics and functional groups of the macrofauna community. So return of corn stalk is beneficial to the development of functional groups of the soil macrofauna in farmlands.