Calosoma sycophanta

Calosoma sycophanta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Clade:	Pancrustacea
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Adephaga
Family:	Carabidae
Genus:	Calosoma
Species:	C. sycophanta
Binomial name
	Calosoma sycophanta; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Carabus sycophanta Linnaeus, 1758 ; Calosoma azureum Letzner, 1850; Calosoma cupreum Letzner, 1850; Calosoma marginatum Letzner, 1850; Calosoma nigrocyaneum Letzner, 1850; Calosoma purpureoaureum Letzner, 1850; Calosoma severum Chaudoir, 1850; Callipara rapax Motschulsky, 1866; Calosoma smaragdynum G.Rossi, 1882; Calosoma habelmanni Schilsky, 1888; Calosoma purpureipenne Reitter, 1891; Calosoma corvinum Heller, 1897; Calosoma anthracinum Houlbert, 1907; Calosoma prasinum Lapouge, 1907; Calosoma solinfectum Jännichen, 1914; Calosoma lapougei Breuning, 1927; Calosoma nigrosuturale Jacquet, 1930; Calosoma nigroaeneum Polentz, 1937;

Calosoma sycophanta, the forest caterpillar hunter, is a species of ground beetle belonging to the family Carabidae.

*Calosoma sycophanta*, male and female. Mounted specimen

Subspecies and varietas

Calosoma sycophanta var. severum Chaudoir, 1850
Calosoma sycophanta var. nigrocyaneum Letzner, 1850
Calosoma sycophanta var. marginatum Letzner, 1850
Calosoma sycophanta var. azureum Letzner, 1850
Calosoma sycophanta var. purpureoaureum Letzner, 1850
Calosoma sycophanta var. cupreum Letzner, 1850
Callipara sycophanta rapax Motschoulsky, 1865
Calosoma sycophanta var. smaragdinum Rossi, 1882
Calosoma sycophanta var. habelmanni Schilsky, 1888
Calosoma sycophanta var. purpuripenne Reitter, 1891
Calosoma sycophanta prasinum Lapouge, 1907
Calosoma sycophanta var. lapougei Breuning, 1927
Calosoma sycophanta nigrosuturale Jaquet, 1930
Calosoma sycophanta nigroaeneum Polentz, 1937

^[2]

Description

Calosoma sycophanta can reach a length of about 21–35 millimetres (0.83–1.38 in). This large ground beetle has characteristic metallic bright green elytra, while scutellum is metallic bluish. The head is black. These colours have iridescent shades that change (green, blue, bronze, copper, gold black) according to the direction and quality of light. Pronotum is transverse shaped, posteriorly sharply narrowed, wrinkled and punctured. Elytra are flattened with clearly visible punctures in the striae.^[2]

Behavior

This ground beetle is a voracious consumer of caterpillars (especially Lymantria dispar, Thaumetopoea processionea, Thaumetopoea pityocampa and Euproctis chrysorrhoea) during both its larval stage and as an adult.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

As a predator the species has been researched for the effect of its predation upon the caterpillars with microsporidian pathogens, finding a preference for Vairimorpha disparis infected larva.^[7]

It is a diurnal beetle and both adults and larvae live in trees.^[8]

Distribution

This species is native to Europe. It is present in most European countries, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Nearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa.^[9] In 1905 it was imported to New England for control of the gypsy moth.^[3]